I've been working on another Holistic Feminism and Post-humanity piece over the last several days; the whole concept was inspired by Leah's posts on feminism and a change in zeitgeist.  This next piece hasn't been flowing along as well as I'd like; there are a number of resources that I can't get my hands on and too many materials available that are close but not quite right for my purposes.

In the mean time, I popped Leah an email, as a kind of short-term response to issues that have been posed between her blog, my blog and others.  After typing it out, it seems this may be what I was trying to say all along, and that it's time to start something that builds on this.

As sent to Leah today:

I think what you personally are experiencing is like the perfect storm -- a point at which all confluences are combining to heighten the wave you are feeling beneath your feet.
 
First, your personal life -- you are reaching a point where your consciousness is increasingly free to explore, not as enmeshed with Kip's needs.  I know when my son was an infant/toddler and my daughter a toddler/preschooler, I didn't have the time nor the capacity in terms of consciousness to deal with anything more (like politics - thank goodness for the Clinton years); my kids were my core, my absolute center and everything I did was about them.  That's by design; human females must dedicate much energy, invest much mentally in their children in this period.  Human mortality historically has been greatest in this age group.  Now that we've gotten them through it our minds are released to new tasks.
 
You're also reaching that point in your relationship with your spouse where being a mother and being a partner in tandem is no longer a new state.  It's comfortable and stable (I am making an assumption, forgive me), leveled out.  That's exactly when change introduces itself.  I think Gail Sheehy comes close to describing this in Passages, but the edition I have is older; it doesn't quite match what we experience today, decades after she first wrote Passages.
 
Secondly, you're feeling a generational wave. Siobhan Synnot noted these waves in her description -- where people wax sentimentally about women in the home.  This in part delineates the generational shift underway; the pre-Boomers are dying out, the Boomers are beginning to retire, Gen X has come into its own and Gen Y is still in school.  The Boomers are much larger than Gen X; Gen Y will be as large as the Boomers by numbers.  Boomers are facing their mortality, especially since they are beginning to retire and their parents are dying.  They wish they could return to their youth -- when life was simpler, they were healthier, and mom was at home to comfort them.  Simple comforts, like simple foods, are highly appealing right now.  To Gen X it feels fun and funky, retro, and yet it has a resonance, an appeal based in simplicity which their highly wired lives don't often have. 
 
There's a natural tie between alternating generations, according to Morris Massey; Gen X may have a better understanding of pre-Boomers because of Boomer's need to rebel and be separate from pre-Boomers.  Gen X has no such concern; they have their own rebellion from Boomers to bind them to pre-Boomers, their grandparents.  Pre-Boomers may make a greater effort with Gen X to pass on their cultural traits through their handiworks.  Note how we've repaid them by deifying them as The Greatest Generation.  (This is in part a farewell from Boomers to pre-Boomers, but Gen X signed on in a big way.)
 
Thirdly, you're feeling a societal shift.  As humans emerge, they do so in waves; something new and big pushes through, with great impact at first and then slowly resolving itself before the build-up of the next wave.  Women's rights were part of that last big wave, on which Boomers rode the highest portion of the crest; we are in that state of resolution and now build-up before the next big wave.  What is it that remains unresolved? (The granting of new rights to women without a corresponding shift in men's responsibilities is one of those unresolved issues.)  What is the next building wave?  It's forming now, and our children will be riding the crest.  We are fronting it for them; we may be able to soften the power of that swell if we learn to surf it ourselves.  We will have to sort out what it is that is of real value, explain what is happening so as to make the most of this coming sea change.  Our parents were unable to do that for us.  We've got the chance with the benefit of all this knowledge; we're better equipped.
 
It may be essential to our well-being to be more effective in helping our children navigate this wave.  If we are the first post-human generation, the first generation that may realize near immortality, the past is only a preface to this entirely new history we are writing.  As co-authors we must be absolutely clear on our message; we may have to live with it in perpetuity, riding this new wave for a very long time.

2:37:47 PM    comment []

The comments appear to be all fouled up again.  They're hanging and then not emailing.

Anybody else having problems with Radio comments? 

Any problems with posting?  I'm testing that now with this post.

1:25:39 PM    comment []