Time wasting in the Bay Colony was a criminal offense. As early as 1633 the General Court decreed:
No person, householder or other, shall spend his time idly or unprofitably under pain of such punishment as the court shall think meet to inflict: and for this end it is ordered, that the constables of every place shall use special diligence to take knowledge of offenders of this kind, especially of common coasters, unprofitable fowlers and tobacco takers, and to present the same.A year later the Court fined two men the heavy sum of twenty shillings each for "misspending their time" - David Hackett Fisher
Albion's Seed
So what is the modern Puritan ideal? Well, from reading the blogs and websites devoted to this ideal in theory it involves being submissive to god and you husband and raising children who are submissive to god and their father. But in reality this is what they seem to aspire to:
- Keeping perfectly clean houses at all times (Or just long enough to take the show-off picture)
- Wearing skirts every day (and bragging about it)
- Look entirely perfect, slender and ethereal (Even though they rarely exercise)
- Creating three home cooked meals a day (made with lots of processed crap and rarely complete meals)
- Being well read (even though they only ever seem to read books put out by Vision Forum and Jane Austen)
- Doing handcrafts like proper ladies (although this is usually paper and glue. If any sewing is involved it's simple lines only.)
- Having the equivalent of a college education (even though they never leave home and usually stop homeschooling around the age of 12 when they have to start looking after little siblings)
- Run a home business (even if it's really a multi-level marketing scheme)
- And of course all the while having ideal relationships with everyone.
I believe you can.
This year I intend to:
- Keep my house clean. Keep it vacuumed and dusted at all times, keep the bathrooms clean, keep the sink empty, and re-organize all the closets and cupboards
- Wear either dresses or feminine tops and skirts every day, no matter what I'm doing
- Cook three meals a day, all with fresh, nutritious food
- Work my way up to my first 5k, 200 push-ups and 100 sit-ups, as well as mastering the bicycle for transportation.
- Read 36 books in 12 months, 12 of their favorites, 12 off the ALA Banned Books list and 12 non-fiction
- Read the entire bible
- Complete 12 embroidery projects
- Complete 12 knitting projects
- Complete 2 large quilts
- Work through a number of real college lecture series
- Write a novel as my home business
- And stay happily married to my wonderful husband
If all goes well I'll even throw some volunteer work in there, but since I have yet to set that up I can't promise anything.
Watch this space.
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