The Albatross Around My Neck

Creepy isn't he . . .

"Laundry is the Albatross around my neck!" I said yesterday to James.  He looked at me as if I were crazy!  "Where in the world does that saying come from?"  he asked.  We often wonder that about common phrases that we use regularly.  I looked this one up and this is what I discovered.

From Wikepedia: 

The word 'albatross' is sometimes used metaphorically to mean a psychological burden that feels like a curse. It is an allusion to Samuel Taylor Coleridge's poem The Rime of the Ancient Mariner (1798).



In the poem, an albatross starts to follow a ship — being followed by an albatross was generally considered an omen of good luck. However, the titular mariner shoots the albatross with a crossbow, which is regarded as an act that will curse the ship (which indeed suffers terrible mishaps). To punish him, his companions induce him to wear the dead albatross around his neck indefinitely (until they all die from the curse, as it happens). Thus the albatross can be both an omen of good or bad luck, as well as a metaphor for a burden to be carried (as penance).


The symbolism used in the Coleridge poem is its highlight. For example:


Ah ! well a-day ! what evil looks


Had I from old and young !


Instead of the cross, the Albatross


About my neck was hung.


     It may seem silly but it is true.  Laundry very well feels like my burden to be carried.  I find it interesting that in this poem, the man shoots the albatross in the first place and brings this burden upon himself.  I can relate as I do the same when I neglect the laundry day after day until it all but swallows me whole.  I don't know why but it drags me down and keeps me from doing a lot of the other things that I need to do. 

     This week, I have conquered the laundry.  I got it all washed, folded, and PUT AWAY last Thursday out of sheer will to get it out of my life!  I have been doing two small loads every day since and have been keeping it at bay.  This enabled me to pick up on a whim and go to the ranch on Friday and Saturday.  It has cleared away the cobwebs and I am able to see some of the other things that I need to get done more clearly.

 Here is to staying on top of it! 

May the curse pass from me this day forward!!

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