The world in a laundromat

Lot’s of people are posting about 9/11 today. I’ve already posted my thoughts on other occasions. It’s sad, but there are plenty of sad things happening right now that deserve our attention.

So, rather than add my own voice, I’ll instead point you toward Torill Mortensen’s post on folding laundry, which concludes:

Today was interesting. I watched a group of people popularly assumed to be rude, brash, loud and forward carefully negotiate the lack of washing machines, driers and laundry baskets, politely assisting when the time-lags were evident, ignoring the intrusions on personal space with almost Scandinavian stoicism, and happily folding their clothes side by side; Spanish, Irani and Irish. It was beautiful. It made me believe in human cooperation, also in the United States. Outlaw private washing machines, fill the world with laundromates, and see people work those differences out in coordinated folding of intimate apparel.

I am going to be spending a good chunk of my evening on laundry, and pining for the days when we had our own machines. But I agree that New Yorkers are often at their best when doing laundry.

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