Too Conservative, Too Dumb?

I have been having a lovely time reading the many google entries on the subject of Radical Homemakers in order to understand Belinda's point that Simple Living and Radical Homemaking are different.

I put up a link to a blog called Laura Grace Weldon that provided a link to an article. I believe the article very clearly shows my problem. My problem could be me of course, but it shows very clearly nontheless.

It was somewhere near the end of this that I lost it.

"What some people would consider adversity, Nika Franchi sees as a stroke of luck. Franchi and her husband, Ben, were translators who often worked on international business deals until the global recession dried up their livelihood. Now they live primarily off the food they grow on their rented property in North Akron and the money Franchi makes from selling the bread she bakes.They'd long been drawn to the idea of a simpler, self-sufficient lifestyle, she said, but they never had the courage to make the change until ''we were fortunate enough to be cornered into this situation.'' Now their life revolves around home, family and hard but life-sustaining work, and Franchi sees her role as keeping the family together.She's an example of what author Shannon Hayes calls radical homemakers, women and men who are reclaiming the traditional role of the homemaker as part of their desire for a less materialistic life. It's a social movement that's drawing a small but growing number of people — many in their 20s and 30s — who measure the value of their lives not in terms of money, but in such aspects as strong relationships, ecological sustainability and happiness.Hayes said radical homemaking is part of a quest for an economy that generates a living for everyone rather than a killing for a few. ''The idea . . . is understanding what enough is,'' she said in a phone interview from West Fulton, N.Y., where she and her husband are involved in running her family's farm.In a way, it's a move backward. Radical homemakers are embracing skills that were common among earlier generations of women, such as canning, sewing and growing food.But the movement rejects one vestige of the past: the perception of homemaking as inferior work.That perception grew out of the industrial revolution, explained Hayes, who holds a Ph.D. in sustainable agriculture and community development from Cornell University. Until then, labor in the household was divided between the sexes, but those differences did not imply superiority or inferiority, she said..."

By the time I did the quote I was tired and it isn't clear anymore. Maybe it is to someone else. I hope I quoted to where I had to.

Anyway there is a blog post called Are You a Radical Homemaker Failure? I will check out the link and find out.

I think I am a failure. If you can look past sentences about Satan that don't make sense and one swear word, really we have a lot in common.

I still have a corporate mind. I do what the boss says. I like to eat. I tried downsizing. Readers of my blog clearly remember the failed "let's downsize our home and be mortgage free" exercise my husband have been engaging in for three years. The whole thing of moving here (which is the name of the blog) 7 years ago, has brought me to the same tired sounding state of the writer.

Our boss, not corporate is the same as corporate. It takes years of hard work and back covering (by hard work, positive attitute, patience, love, all sorts of things) just to keep a job, because really why pay someone good money if they are not worth it.

So, you think maybe I should have a back up plan of the mortgage free house. Embarassing. We have ironed out some of the houses problems, even saw some very respectable people looking the house over from the outside a couple of weeks ago.

I can't help but think someone should critic this after 27 years of being married working out these things, like me, but someone more able to critic it. The economic crises in Australia was more in the 80s. I had a relative that was a hippy when I was a small girl. I know some of these issues, I lived on a farm. I don't have it to fall back on. I think that is maybe the issue here. Being independent is a big deal, it is everything sometimes. I don't work, but I am not a good homemaker at the moment. I am backing up my family in that climb I suppose. But in town though, I don't try to compete, very tired. It is a small community, one of the issues about radical homemaking. I too am happy just waving to them, if they would let me. The community is part of the problem keeping a job. Maybe Hayes would feel differently if she lived in a farming community that wasn't her own?