When I was a kid, I had one garbage can, the one from my room. When I went to college, I took that garbage can with me. When I got my first apartment, I had to buy another garbage can for the kitchen.
As my life has expanded, it became increasingly necessary for more garbage cans. First an office trash can, then a nice flip top one for the bathroom, then one for the baby's room. Life is an accumulation of garbage cans.
Today I realized I needed one more garbage can, for my sewing room. This marks an important transition from sewing being an activity I perform in other spaces to an activity that has a room of its own...and a garbage can of its own.
"A woman must have money and a room of her own if she is to write fiction," Virginia Woolf once wrote...in a room of her own. If that is the case then surely a woman must have a garbage can and a room of her own if she is to sew poorly.
There is more than a little irony in the fact that I, as an ardent feminist, take such enjoyment in an activity that has for centuries symbolized "women's work." How would ol' Ginnie feel about modern women using their leisure time and a room of their own to sew garments that could easily be purchased?
Alas, these are philosewphical thoughts for another day.
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