Beautiful or useful

"Have nothing in your house that you do not know to be useful, or believe to be beautiful."

William Morris' advice makes me work hard to be useful, not just in the house, but everywhere. It seems to apply equally well to people as to things. 

Without William Morris' help, we had a sort of family version of this quote to encourage effort. It was along the lines that if you were not pretty enough to be an ornament, at least you could be useful. I paid attention.

The quotation always seemed to make such good sense. Maybe it's a cruel master if you take it too literally, and stick to it with too much rigidity, but as a general principle, it holds good for me.

I had to re-think, though. Recently I had to stop what I was doing to listen to a radio programme that was hypnotically gripping. It was essential to sit down and give the radio my complete attention. 

I often tend to have the radio on in the background. I have tinnitus and can't hear silence any more, and silence is something I loved, enjoyed, and found calming. Even in the deepest countryside, when the birds have settled, there is no silence. And I guess to mask this, I often have the radio on.

Suddenly, though, I realised that the William Morris dictum applied to sound, too. Doh ! Why hadn't I noticed this before ? Who knows ? 

But the epiphany has changed my listening, and I am trying now to have only beautiful or useful sounds around me. In the house. In the car. In the shed. (Tough one, that.)

Listen to this space !