But what about *second* day of rest? (Challenge Day 10 of 30)

It may not surprise you to find out that after 24 hours of feverish gastro I am still not 100 percent; I did in fact spend a chunk of today asleep. The rest of the day was mostly doing miscellaneous chores, those I felt well enough to do. Looking after the kids, doing the dishes, cooking dinner. Things of the carrying water, chopping wood variety, if not those things exactly. Oh, and once night fell and the kids (mostly) fell asleep I played D&D with my wife and friends. Good times.

It seems to me that self-improvement stuff is often unnecessarily compartmentalised, into individualistic, dare I say capitalistic systems, which means — to bring in a little Marx — they are often alienating. If your image of self-improvement and those that practice it is a single male gymbro who takes cold showers and meditates, perhaps this is why. And perhaps that’s why those that pursue self-improvement as marketed often ultimately find it lonely or unfulfilling. I’m not saying there is anything wrong with being single, going to the gym, cold showers (I still do them!) or meditation; just that when these often solo pursuits become what is understood to be “self improvement” then the common things in life that it actually makes a lot more sense to be good at (cooking, cleaning, fixing things, and such) are denigrated. Or, as often seems to be the case these days, they are gendered; the lionised warrior-monkish self-improvement stuff is male-coded whereas cooking and cleaning and child-rearing gets flowy sundresses and Instagram filters and becomes tradwife-chic.

I say nuts to that. Sometimes the most improving thing you can do is be present with the kids, or make sure the dishes are done, and I’m going to assert that this is independent of gender; you can be sheila or bloke or anywhere in between and find the ordinary things that don’t require a membership the most self-improving activities around.

Thanks as always for reading. All going well, something like normal service will resume tomorrow.