Drawings

The Golden Age (Ovid)

Saeculum Aureum

Aurea prima sata est aetas, quae vindice nullo,
sponte sua, sine lege fidem rectumque colebat.

poena metusque aberant, nec verba minantia fixo
aere legebantur, nec supplex turba timebat
iudicis ora sui, sed erant sine vindice tuti.
nondum caesa suis, peregrinum ut viseret orbem,
montibus in liquidas pinus descenderat undas,

nullaque mortales praeter sua litora norant;
nondum praecipites cingebant oppida fossae;
non tuba derecti, non aeris cornua flexi,
non galeae, non ensis erat: sine militis usu
mollia securae peragebant otia gentes.    

          

 ipsa quoque inmunis rastroque intacta nec ullis
saucia vomeribus per se dabat omnia tellus,
contentique cibis nullo cogente creatis
arbuteos fetus montanaque fraga legebant
cornaque et in duris haerentia mora rubetis

et quae deciderant patula Iovis arbore glandes.
ver erat aeternum, placidique tepentibus auris
mulcebant zephyri natos sine semine flores;
mox etiam fruges tellus inarata ferebat,
nec renovatus ager gravidis canebat aristis;

flumina iam lactis, iam flumina nectaris ibant,
flavaque de viridi stillabant ilice mella.

The Golden Age 
 

The age was formed of gold; in those first days

No law or force was needed; men did right

Freely; without duress they kept their word.

No punishment or fear of it; no threats

Inscribed on brazen tablets; no crowds crawled

Beseeching mercy from a lofty judge;

For without law or judge all men were safe.

High on its native hills the pine tree stood,

Unlopped as yet, nor yet compelled to cross

Ocean's wide waves, and help men leave their homes.

Towns had no moats; no horns of winding brass

Nor trumpets straight, nor swords nor shields existed.

The nations dozed through ages of soft time,

Safe without armies; while the earth herself,

Untouched by spade or plowshare, freely gave,

As of her own volition, all men needed:

And men were well content with what she gave

Unforced and uncompelled; they found the fruit

Of the arbutus bush, and cornel-cherries,

Gathered wild berries from the mountain-sides,

Eating ripe fruit plucked from the thorny canes,

And acorns as they fell from Jove's wide oak.

Spring lasted all year long; the warm west wind

Played gently over flowers sprung from no seed:

Soon too the unfilled earth brought forth profuse

Her crops of grain; and fields, uncultivated,

Whitened beneath their stalks of bearded wheat.

Streams flowed profuse, now milk, now nectar, and

The living oak poured streams of golden honey.

The Dirty Duty of the Cleaner

'Hygiene' is the art of health, deriving its name from the ancient Greek goddes 'Hygeia'. A thorough hygiene was used in order to eliminate bacteria, reduce illnesses and to cultivate a good health. Whilst hygiene had been very evolved in Antiquity, it almost seemed to be forgotten during the Middle Ages. Later in the Renaissance and Baroque, it was even prohibited to take a bath, as water was seen as the vector of illnesses. Instead, a good doze of parfume was used to cover one's body odour. Only during the Age of Enlightenment, hygiene luckily got a revival. The rising interest in the humanities, in science, and in medicine have finally established sanitariness in everyday life.
Until today hygiene has continuously been cultivated, so that most private households in the so called "industrialised world", prefer rather high standards of cleanliness. Meanwhile, these standards have become so meticulous that an excessive hygiene does not only reach the opposite effect, namely allergic reactions and a pure immune system, but it is also detrimental to the environment through harsh and hazardous cleaners.
Interestingly enough, many of those who clean their houses with an almost fetishistic obsession, behave like uncultivated savages when it comes to treat the outside of their microcosm with the same ambitions: cigarette butts, chewing gums, and other trash is filling the streets, parks, and restaurants. In the latter one, you can find half of the food under the tables from (obviously) overfed adults pretending to have learned how to eat. Once the metabolic system is taking it's toll, public toilets become a Freudian treasure chest, if one tried to analyse the childhood-traumas that seem to (literally) run free when people do their 'business' in an environment that they won't have to clean themselves, and therefore don't feel responsible for.
These people do not seem to consider that actually someone is cleaning up their mess. As the names already suggest, the charwomen, charladies, or Mrs Mops are mostly female. They probably have a migrational background, do not speak the language of the country they living in, have only little to no education, or lack any other officially accepted "qualifications".  They are the less advantaged in a society that pays way too much attention to numbers, statistics, and formalities. Therefore they are forced to black labour at unearthly hours, for less than half of the official minimum wage, mostly without weekends, holidays, healthinsurances or any other personal securities. Those who are illiterate have to develop other skills in order to cope in a literate environment. Most things that we would simply write down like appointments, streetnames, or telephone numbers, they have to memorise differently. Generally they learn all those things by heart - by memorizing shapes, colours, or smells. Therefore they do not only develop an excellent graphic memory and intuition, but they actually belong to the most intelligent people of our society. And they are highly sensitised to an environment, in which one tries to cover up one's own illiteracy out of shame. Most of them cannot afford eating out but they have to earn their living by bending down their heads into other peoples toilets.
It is time to take responsibility and show those cleaners some respect. Our world is not a giant trashbin, we should not treat it as one. After all, with just a little bit more consciousness, one would not just help a cleaner with her heavy lot, but one would also help to preserve the eco-system for our forthcoming generations, who also deserve to live in a clean and healthy environment.