Gender Inconclusions IV

"Did you hear a knock at the door?" Seda asked when she noticed I had left the dinner table.

"Yes!" I called from the living room where I was giving another mom her share of the wholesale pickup I'd received on her behalf earlier that day.

"It's nice to live in community, so much easier, really," I said, returning to the table. "I think of all the little things I have to keep track of as a homemaker -- fermenting the oatmeal for tomorrow's breakfast, stacking the firewood before it rains, picking up our order from Hummingbird Wholesale, handling our loan application at the bank -- all of these time sensitive things to do. But in community, so many of these tasks can be shared or picked up by one another when we simply cannot fit it in. It would be so lonely to make a home in isolation."

"Yeah," said Seda. "And so many people do! No wonder they're unhappy homemakers."

"Mmm," I said. "It's part of our consumer culture -- we buy this and that prepackaged thing, a dishwasher to do our dishes, a washing machine to wash our clothes (I'm not complaining on that one, mind you)...."

"And still, with all these modern conveniences, homemakers now spend more time doing housework than ever before," said Seda.

"Well, they now have bigger houses."

"True! In the fifties, people lived in little houses, like ours, and that was the norm."

"Did you know," I asked the boys, "that when we bought this 750 square foot house, our realtor almost refused to show it to us because it 'wasn't big enough' for our needs. If Maddy and I were still together romantically, it still would be."

"Wow," said Trinidad.

"Yep. We should get some old episodes of 'Leave It To Beaver,'" I said. "That would be a real social studies education."

"Women were expected to vaccuum the floors in high heels and dresses, Trinidad," said Seda. Trinidad's eyes widened. "You know, I wonder if that's why the feminist movement turned their back on homemaking?"

"Oh, Seda, you're right!" I said. "The homemakers in those days switched on television and turned to the bottle to keep them company. So much for sisters sharing resources and power in the world. So much for community and sustainability!"

Can you imagine? A T.V. dinner marauding as ease, so seductive... if bland. All that time to play Bridge! But what about meaningful shared efforts to feed the family, feed the world? The recipes and nourishing wisdom of generations, lost to plastic and paperboard.

And then a generation of young women who looked back and said, "I will not stay home."

Herein lies the epidemic of homelessness.