Living In the World, Not on It

It is Wife Swap time, meaning we watch episodes (from time to time) of Wife Swap. It's a good show in that it [usually] teaches each family to relax a little and meet things more in the middle, instead of being super-neat or super-sloppy, but just normal. By no means do we run around cleaning every day , which is too much; nor do we never, ever , clean but have the house cleaned top to bottom every two weeks. That is normal. Well, this week, we have the Haigwood family swapping their wife/mother with the wife/mother of the Hess-Webb family. And what an adventure this is... The Haigwood family, out in the wilds (well, farm) in Massena, Iowa, do not clean their house at all. No exceptions. Not even soapy water and a sponge. I might understand that chemicals are looked upon as poor, for whatever reason, but something - anything  - needs to be used to clean the house once in a while. That is rather disgusting and incredibly unsanitary, but this by far not the worst thing about

This one, Brazenwood/Taylor , which aired on 24 April 2009, has the Taylors, the husband who is a cowboy and immersed in the cowboy culture. I had no idea that being a completely sexist pig was what it took to be a cowboy. That seems wrong. I understand it is more masculine culture to be in, but this much? And cowboys can be very intelligent; not this guy. Calvin Taylor is a mental midget. His wife, Heather, is a homey, comfortable woman who is down to earth and pleasant. I find her very likeable. She is not an astronomy lover, but she definitely pooh-poohs astrology. I find astrology mostly amusing but not a science by any means. But I can understand her attitude when meeting the Brazenwoods. Kelly Brazenwood is a 37-year-old husband who is really around 5-years-old. I accuse Luis of being immature, but I put him at 14-years-old because he is sexually mature and raunchy (that is not a shared quality in front of other people, just for me), but this guy is a little kid. He thinks he'

I'm catching up on our Wife Swap recordings. I'm watching the epiode Burroughs/Padovan-Hickman one that aired on 17 April 2009. The one I watched just before was really quite satisfying - the families both learned a lot and seemed to really take it to heart. This one, however, is back to the familiar mold of putting families that are so totally diametrically opposite families together that they almost can't get along. This is interesting, though, because the Padovan-Hickmans have electricity but don't use it, don't flush often, go for a week without showering and then the whole family uses the same bathwater... I can see where that would be hard, especially for me in that I have very oily skin and hair and would look rather wretched after the next day. But the family themselves are very likable and fun, the father looks more like a kindly grandfather, but really is quite intelligent and pleasant. I would have trouble with the clean thing and I'd miss my iPod