Confessions of a Cleaning Lady

House of the Artist

So today I cleaned a house wherein dwells an Artist. She's a very interesting person, I've had lots of opportunity to talk to her about herself, her kids, life happenings, all that stuff that you'd normally try to avoid talking to a client about. I'll tell you a little secret: your housekeeper wants you to leave while he/she is there. We don't want to hang out with you, and we don't want you to hang out in the house while we're there. No offense meant, usually we like our clients. It's just awkward.

This particular woman, however, is different. I enjoy her, really. She lives there with her husband, their two children have grown and moved away. One's an actor, the other an engineer. Hubs is a lawyer, believe me when I tell you they're extremely well off. They belong to the local old money country club. The house is gorgeous and immaculate (even when we're not there) and it's full of beautiful, expensive things. Probably the most striking pieces in the house are her portraits. She's a portrait artist, a very talented one. This is what she does for a living now, even though she doesn't have to. She does it because she loves it. It would be easy to judge this person if you hadn't had the opportunity to learn about her. Before she married into money, raised two children, and started painting as a hobby, she was a nurse. An ER nurse, to be specific.

We've discussed social issues, personal stories, our children, and a host of other interesting topics. So at first it was a little hard for me to reconcile her lavish lifestyle with the fact that she is a person of quite a bit of substance. And it got me to thinking: What is the value of beauty and art? Can a person stay humble, I mean really truthfully humble? Not just oh-look-how-grateful-and-humble-I-am on instagram humble. Can they be one-misfortune-away-from-homeless humble and surround themselves with expensive beautiful objects? Can they really stay in touch with the issues of Joe average? I know there are lots of celebrities, CEO's, and politicians who say absolutely. I've always had my doubts. I've always been of the opinion that once people acquire a certain amount of wealth, they become out of touch with what it's like to live like everyone else does. To be fair, the concept of "everyone else" here is relative. I'm out of touch with somewhere else's "everyone else" too. But you know what I'm saying.

There are examples of this everywhere, and it only takes knowing a handful of rich-ass people to see it in action. Every problem is a first world problem, and a person's ability to relate to the rest of the world runs dry.
So this is why my feelings for this lady are a study in juxtaposition. Normally, I would assume she's clueless and out of touch. This may be true to an extent. I've often wondered if she (and literally every one else who's homes we clean for that matter) would've hired us if we were black. Or Mexican. Or anyone of color, really. I think it's very doubtful, but at least the Artist would question herself. She probably has many preconceived ideas of what other people are like who aren't like her, just as I had my own toward her. But if there's one thing I've learned, it's that in order to understand each other, we have to hang out with each other.

The Artist may hang out with the other country club snobs in her spare time. She probably doesn't have too many friends of color, or who are from different socioeconomic backgrounds. It gives me hope though that she can see that for what it is. She has expressed frustration at the ignorance and snobbery of some of her acquaintances, and she's voiced ideas about gay rights and poverty and racism that are downright progressive. To be honest, she's kind of thrown a monkey wrench in my workings of what I thought I knew about wealthy people. And for that, I'm grateful to her.