Today I wanted to talk about a major menace to society, the dishwasher. This device was hailed as a marvel of modern technology but in actuality it has been eroding society at several levels. Gone are the days when one needed to take responsibility for their dishes, now you can simply pile them into the sink and when that fills up pile them into your miraculous machine, the dishwasher. Gone are the days of after dinner chores and 'you wash, I'll dry,' now it's simply a matter of throwing them willy-nilly into your friendly household appliance and flipping a few switches. Your dirt and refuse are washed away while you sit idly watching television. Sure washing dishes is not a strenuous activity and it probably doesn't burn a large amount of calories but it was still an activity.

So when you are looking at the latest diet fad and thinking you could stand to lose a few pounds, why not forgo the dishwasher and simply do the dishes by hand. I know that sounds ludicrous since you already have the machine right there under the kitchen sink and that's what it was made for but there is more to this than the machine and burning a few calories. But it's a start.

Dropping your dishes into the sink instead of the dishwasher teaches us that our problems can't simply be cleansed from our lives by handing them off to someone or something else. Then without a second thought the problems are taken care of. Well folks, this simply isn't true. Life is all about taking care of your own business and your own problems. It's not about handing them off to others to deal with.

The dishwasher itself is not to blame, after all it, like us, did not choose to come into existence. It was created for one purpose and that was to clean dishes. It fulfills its duty regularly all the while washing away the foundation beneath society and sending it spiraling down the drain along with the left over bits of green bean fries, fried mac and cheese and frozen pizza. No longer are all children taught that certain things need to be done right and they are the only ones who can do it. No longer do they learn the value of manual labor and doing something themselves. Sure washing dishes is a minor task in the whole of society but it is a stepping stone, like a gateway drug, to a far larger problem. It is the first step, or lack of a step, to laziness.

So the next time you polish off those buffalo chicken tenders with the side order of ranch dipping sauce, plunge your hands into the suds and take the first step towards taking responsibility. After all, the only way to have something done right, is to do it yourself.