Each summer for the past few years we have invited our contributors to respond to a set of questions about a specific topic or topics. (We call these prompts “Directives,” borrowing the term used by Mass Observation. For more on the Mass Observation Directives, see here.) Below is this year’s Directive for EDLM, focused on home life and religion/spirituality. If you’re interested in responding to this Directive, or contributing a diary to the Everyday Life in Middletown archive, drop us a note using the contact form at the bottom of the page or emailing us at edlmiddletown [at] gmail.com.
Everyday Life in Middletown Directive, Summer 2024
This directive asks you to share your thoughts, feelings, and experiences concerning two separate issues: home life and religious/spiritual practices.
As always, feel free to use your creativity in expressing how your everyday life is informed by home life and by religious/spiritual practices. You can write your directive out as an essay (or as two essays), as a set of disjointed observations, or any other way you like. You do not need to answer the questions below in order (though you may do so if you wish). Feel free to discuss the overlap between the two topics. Don’t let the questions limit what you share, but do try to answer them all, in one way or another, if you find them applicable to your life.
Home Life
What does the word “home” conjure up for you? What does “making a home” mean to you?
Please describe the physical space in which you live (room/apartment/house, etc.)? How long have you been there? What do you like or not like about it (please give examples)?
Do you have favorite or least favorite parts or aspects of your home? To what extent does your home stress you out or give you comfort, and under what conditions or circumstances?
With whom do you share your home? How do you manage caring for it? How does the physical space you occupy make everyday life easy or difficult?
Religious and Spiritual Practice
Please describe your religious or spiritual beliefs, if any? How do they inform your everyday life? Do you think about your beliefs daily (and, if you do so, what sort of thinking to you do)?
If you consider yourself agnostic, atheist, or secular, does something in your life play the role that religion or spirituality plays for others? Please describe as fully as you can.
What routine practices in your life are connected to religious or spiritual belief, and how? What benefits do you receive from these practices?
Are you happy with your current beliefs and practices? Why or why not? What would you change if you could? What challenges your beliefs?