domestic life

Post Feminism

This is what free women look like, and we have never seen them before.

The writer and the laundry

We all have to choose where to lay our sacrifices, and I have lain mine at the feet of my children. The greatest sacrifice was going to work every day, thus missing important events in their lives

Monica Lewinsky: The Other Woman

According to the press and our societal expectations, when an affair is revealed, the only vow that counts is the vow a man made to his wife. The promises made to the Other Woman are thrown in the trash.

Life Without My Husband: The Weekend

While my husband Terry was in Australia, I was at Kripalu for the weekend. There were yoga classes, meditations, a wild noon dance, an evening concert, and fresh food of a larger variety than we usually eat. The view of a constantly mutating lake and folds of distant mountains was magnificent. What I loved mostContinue reading “Life Without My Husband: The Weekend”

Life Without My Husband (Day Three)

Today was Thanksgiving. My daughter and I feasted at the assisted living home where my aunt Jean lives — a mild, merely warm repast. Jean gets more frail every day. There were several people there who had no visitors. Dorothy (a pleasant, tidy woman who spends her day doing Sudoku in the sun room) wasContinue reading “Life Without My Husband (Day Three)”

Life Without My Husband – Day Two

I had trouble getting to sleep on my first night alone, but once there, I slept longer than usual. I forget — were queen-sized beds meant for two people or only one? My childhood friend Suzy’s parents had two queen-sized beds. All the parents I knew had twin beds separated by a little table, justContinue reading “Life Without My Husband – Day Two”

Life Without My Husband (Day One)

I have just kissed him good-bye, so I don’t miss him yet. He’s still sitting in the airport, or going through security. I’m grateful that the big storm that’s coming tonight held off until he left. Driving back from the airport, I could feel my context shifting. I was starving and now I could eatContinue reading “Life Without My Husband (Day One)”

Masters of Sex

A television program about two sex researchers? I wasn’t drawn to it, but have changed my mind. The story begins mildly titillating, with brazen prostitutes and daring civilians offering themselves to be viewed and analyzed scientifically while having sex. Masters, the dour, repressed genius, is convinced that finding out how sex works in human beingsContinue reading “Masters of Sex”

Being Poor

According to Charles Blow’s article in The New York Times this morning ,“…the No. 1 reason people gave for our continuing poverty crisis was: ‘Too much welfare that prevents initiative.’” I’ll bet you never thought I had come close to welfare, with my two M.A.’s, a couple of successful careers, multilingual, well traveled. Some peopleContinue reading “Being Poor”