Why I'm bitter below

I had a day that really brought motherhood and class issues to the fore for me. I talked to a woman — self-defined as working poor — whose son was killed in a terrible accident. Although the accident killed him, he was stuck under the car where he was not found for five hours (there are all kinds of other issues here I'm going to gloss over). Those were the worst five hours of her life. She didn't know where to find her son. She's self-defined working poor and that, combined with her emotional distress, probably didn't help with her communication.

Her husband had a broken leg and was supposed to start a job recently. She's got three other kids and has taken in a friend of her oldest son's.

So when I hear upper middle class women with two incomes or one that is big enough to support a family of whatever — where their stresses are totally ones that they can manage, stresses that any person in the world in their right mind would be thrilled to have — ballet lessons, soccer lessons, daycare to get the kids to, kid-proofing the kitchen to do because it's stocked with chemicals that keep linoleum floors and granite countertops sterile, finding time to sex up the hubby because they don't share a hut with the kids, fretting that buying take out food means they're a bad mom — it all seems so tiny and unimportant. Moreover, it perpetuates the middle class woman as reveling in imminance, ala Bouvoir. All those stupid things to think about, all cultural constructs that encourage consumer consumption and competition.

And there is so much pain out there, so many problems, that could be solved if these women felt secure enough about the future of their children to not pass them through this mechanized childhood machine to prep them for success. Maybe they would feel more secure about the future of their children if they all applied their political will and brilliant creativity towards making the world safer for all of us. Whether that is via economic, medical or political means.

Anyway, that's just my rant for today. I was really upset by this woman's story. I see it in a larger, upsetting context, too.

Also the guy from Niger, where I saved the village, as no doubt you've read before, dropped by today to present the Gateway with a wonderful carved elephant and me with a beautiful carved woman with a baby on her back and a water jug on her head. Basically, it reminded me of how much there is here and how ungrateful this society can be. And how the media don't always cater to our better angels.