Group read: "Why is this woman's work anyway?!"

I'm one of those women who would much rather read than do housework, so I got a kick out of Leila's post:

All I want is affirmation and love-bombs about every little thing I do -- Look, honey, I am presentable today! Look, I neatened up this corner! Look, we have dinner! Instead I get the smackdown from God Almighty: You're only doing what you are supposed to be doing -- don't be such a baby.

And you know, the truth is that all those things are simply background for the real business of loving each other and getting to heaven.

And since this is something that I've been mulling over myself, I was very excited to see her go on to say....

I want to talk about a serious question that comes up, and its answer underlies the whole purpose of what we do, blog-wise, family-wise, life-wise...

It's this: Why should *I* have to do all this? Why is all this the woman's lot to preside over? Am I not good enough for the world to recognize my work with something tangible, like a paycheck? How can I explain my home to someone else? To myself? What about someone who isn't Christian?

....to answer the question in an orderly, satisfying way, you might want to do some reading....

And Leila's recommended reading?









Woo hoo!  Leila will be discussing these books over Lent.  Mulieris Dignitatem is out of print but you can download it from the Vatican website (suggestion: copy the text and paste it into a text document to avoid that annoying parchment background.)  We have it linked here (click the book cover) and on our "What is the Feminine Genius" page.   I just read Mulieris Dignitatem and feel like I've alluded to Leisure about 150 times over the last four months, so I'm eager to follow along.



photo illustration by solcookie, used under a Creative Commons License