A bit about freedom, in honor of the 4th

'Marriage, in what is evidently its most popular version, is now on the one hand an intimate "relationship" involving (ideally) two successful careerists in the same bed, and on the other hand a sort of private political system in which rights and interests must be constantly asserted and defended. Marriage, in other words, has now taken on the form of divorce: a prolonged and impassioned negotiation as to how things shall be divided.' - Wendell Berry, Feminism, the Body, and the Machine

Before moving to Kentucky Alan gave me a book of short stories by a man named Wendell Berry who, I'm ashamed to admit, I'd never heard of at that point. Alan mentioned he happened to be a writer and farmer who was also a Kentucky man, and this book might give me a taste of Bluegrass living. Since moving to Jessamine County what's captivated me about Wendell Berry has more to do with his insights into conservation, social relationships, and the pitfalls of American living than his fiction about the Commonwealth.

The quote above is taken from a short essay Berry wrote in response to some of his critics. After mentioning in an article for Harper's that his wife types his manuscripts on a typewriter, Berry received several letters denouncing him as an oppressive husband, treating his wife like a "household drudge."

So Berry poses this question: if he'd mentioned in the same article that his wife was a career typist, would he have heard the same outcry? Probably not. There is something about a person who works outside the home that says "freedom" or "independence" whereas the one who stays home with children or farms or runs a cottage industry calls to mind some kind of bondage.

Are we really so dense any more? I haven't talked to so many people in my life, but most of those I've come across have suffered a fair amount of oppression in the work place. Berry's point seems to be that the best thing at the beginning of the industrial age would have been for women to call there husbands back home to labor rather than for men to drag their wives into the machine we call work.

I don't have any problem with working outside the home; I do know that for me it was a constant fight to keep my dignity intact and my spirits up. And I know we need lots of professional people, but why is that the ideal for all? You can't tell me there is more freedom for the person who sits behind a desk all day than my friend who spends her time tending a garden and working at the children's library. Nor can you say that a single mom I knew in New York who made a living dying yarn and raising her 5 kids is oppressed because she removed herself from a high power corporate job.

People of both genders would do well to rethink what it means to be free, to be independent, to be happy. After writing the statement I quoted above, Berry goes on to talk of how the American home is based on consumption rather than production. Whereas families once made things together, they now primarily consume beside each other. So I suppose if our purpose is to consume, than we all would do well to get good-paying jobs to support our purpose.

I know I didn't do Berry's essay much justice here, so please read it for yourself if you have the time. Thanks for reading this, I'll accept your criticisms as graciously as I can.