Generations ago, housewives envied glamorous career women. Now career women envy glamorous housewives. What gives?

Donna Reed

Traditional housework is a demanding job. A good deal of it has been outsourced by manufacturing and commercial consumption. Now we have “light” home responsibilities.

Like lots of other people, these days I find myself wanting to be as environmentally responsible and healthy as possible. I’m learning the value of things like growing my own food, using alternative medicine, having a less toxic home, buying less, reusing more, cooking nourishing homemade meals… This is a lot to do.

Many of the things we think of now as “green” living were part of someone’s job. That person was also largely responsible for everything from childrearing to making soap. Clearly, this role is nothing like the lives of “Real/Desperate Housewives,” who make it seem luxurious and spoiled to be a housewife. This is real work.

Wage-earning spouses made out pretty well. In exchange for their financial contributions, they got a gardener, nanny, chef, tailor, housekeeper, barber, nutritionist, interior designer, events planner, etc.

Now I feel like women are trying to be superstars in outside careers and domestic goddesses at home. Even when we try to share responsibilities, in a male/female household, when your place and your kids are looking a mess, who usually ends up with the blame? The woman.

Women should have equal opportunities and never be forced to stay at home. But what is so bad about a single income household, where there is a wage-earner and someone else responsible for domestic responsibilities? I know that you’re probably thinking, “This is just a woman who envies glamorous housewives and is trying to legitimize that envy.” Maybe.

A new study finds that people project their personal beliefs upon the god they worship. An egocentric approach to devotion is probably to be expected. Even those of us who love to argue usually seek some sort of harmony when it comes to prayer. Yankees fans presumably don’t pray to a Red Sox god.

What I do wonder, which this study doesn’t capture, is if polytheistic religions (with more than one god) have the same issues or could they perhaps allow for more complexity. Also, if people are created in god’s image, maybe a there is an aspect of a macro-god that validates even our craziest contradictions.

Acclaimed Native American author, Sherman Alexie, was on the Colbert Report this week. Most of his interview was a rant against the impact of digital media on published literature. Alexie has decided not to make his books available for purchase through Kindle or any electronic book distributor. He argues that digitizing storytelling will ruin its integrity and the ability of artists to earn a living.

The part of me that loves technology bristles at Alexie’s concerns. That part takes serious offense to his disparaging remarks about the “open source culture” of the internet and its devaluation of everything. Ouch. There’s much to rebut this with. He’s being hyperbolic and misunderstanding the brilliant cooperative innovation offered by open source communities.

However, there’s part of me that loves the gritty texture of a book–the same part that collects records and refused to deejay with MP3s until my back started to break from lugging those darn things around. That part empathizes with Alexie and other purists who cherish the authenticity of dogeared leaves of the magical printed word.

Here’s the thing… there are enough of both of those influences to keep old and new school literature alive. Rather than fight the change, we may have to accept that the neighborhood bookstore may persist but more in the form of the neighborhood record collector store. Meanwhile, artists will persist in creating and thriving, as will business interests, in all formats for which there is a demand.

I finally saw Adam Lambert’s “controversial” performance at the American Music Awards. Other than the fact that it seemed more like the Emmy’s than an AMA typical type of performance, I don’t see the big deal.

I can’t wait until the day when all gay performers come out of the closet. For homophobes, it’ll be like the climax moment in your traditional alien invasion movie: “Oh my god, they’re on every single channel and throughout my entire record collection. I can’t even get away at the theater or Abercrombie & Fitch.”

For these people, just like John Mayer said about folks who were shocked to find out that Britney Spears lipsyncs her shows and want their money back, “Life will continue to be hard for you.”