"We just do what we have to do." When tedious work is pleasurable [by Stacey Lehman]

Face masks, ready to be washed before inserting ties.

This was supposed to be the season of sewing my summer wardrobe. I'd picked the patterns and purchased the fabric to make breezy cotton dresses, linen jumpsuits, gauzy blouses. Then came you-know-what. Here in Ithaca, the head of a loose organization of home-sewists put out a call for face masks, first to be worn by health care workers in senior citizen centers, hospice, and the like, and more recently for bus drivers and the employees of the food co-op and an area soup kitchen. We shared notes on patterns, lamented the shortage of elastic, and got to work. The first batch of 167 homemade masks was delivered to Hospicecare on March 26; we're working on an order for an additional 350. 

I contributed about 15 masks to the effort before getting sidetracked by making masks for family and for  friends in "hot" zones. Now I'm working on a supply of 30 or so for the employees of the New York City building where David and I maintain a small apartment. The first 15 will be ready to go on Saturday. 

The process is simple and can be managed by anyone with a few supplies and basic sewing know-how. Once I got the hang of the pattern, I was able to streamline production by reducing it to a series of steps that move smoothly and quickly. Still, I want those who wear these masks feel good about them so I'm taking my time to make them look as professionally made as possible. Once I exhausted my supply of appropriate scraps left over from other projects, I cut into a length of high-quality lightweight denim for the outside and am using a soft white cotton for the lining, made with a pocket to hold a filter, if any can be found. I'm proud of how they're turning out. All of the effort I've put into improving my sewing skills over the past couple of years has come to fruition. When the call for masks went out, I thought, "I can do this." 

Sometimes, while sewing, I listen to classical music and enter the state of "flow," described by psychologist Mihaly Csikszentmihaly in his seminal work on the subject as the period when one is "completely involved in an activity for its own sake. The ego falls away. Time flies. Every action, movement, and thought follows inevitably from the previous one, like playing jazz. Your whole being is involved, and you're using your skills to the utmost." 

At other times, the work is downright tedious and it is then that I'm reminded of Thomas Merton's observation in The Springs of Contemplation about the value of boring work:

If I insist that my work be rewarding, that it mustn't be tedious or monotonous, I'm in trouble. . . . Time after time it fails to become so. So I get more agitated about it, I fight with people about it, I make more demands about it. . . . It's ridiculous to demand that work always be pleasurable, because work is not necessarily pleasing; sometimes it is, sometimes it isn't. If we're detached and simply pick up the job we have to do and go ahead and do it, it's usually fairly satisfying. Even jobs that are repugnant or dull or tedious tend to be quite satisfying, once we get right down to doing them. . . . One of the routine jobs I get every once in a while comes from putting out a little magazine. You have to sort the pages. It's a simple, routine, mechanical sort of job. . . . I never realized that this would be one of the most satisfying parts of the whole thing, just standing there sorting pages. This happens when we just do what we have to do.

-- sdl

Comments

[Denise Duhaml]

This is an amazing post!! These masks are beautiful as are you!!!

[Jeanie Thompson]

Stacy, thank you fir this meditation. i have been trying to get motivated to make some masks here in Alabama. Can you share your pattern?.

[Anna]

I too, am making masks. So satisfying. Yours are beautiful. Big hug

[Stacey Lehman]

Thank you Jeanie. There's a link to the pattern in the piece (third paragraph). I'm using 45" round shoelaces for ties.

[Stacey Lehman]

Thank you Denise!

[jim c,]

Stacey, you are, quite simply, THE BEST!