"I belong to the generation of women who... recoiled from the proposition that keeping a husband presentable and fed should be our highest intellectual aspiration. Somehow, though, history came around and bit us in the backside: now most women have jobs and still find themselves largely in charge of the housework. When my generation of women walked away from the kitchen we were escorted down the path by a profiteering industry that knew a tired, vulnerable target when they saw it. "Hey, ladies," it said to us, "go ahead, get liberated. We'll take care of dinner." They threw open the door and we walked into a nutritional crisis and genuinely toxic food supply. If you think toxic is an exaggeration, read the package directions for handling raw chicken. We came a long way, baby, into bad eating habits and collaterally impaired family dynamics. When we traded homemaking for careers, we were implicitly promised economic independence and worldly influence. But a devil of a bargain it has turned out to be in terms of daily life. We gave up the aroma of warm bread rising, the measured pace of nurturing routines, the creative task of molding our families' tastes and zest for life; we received in exchange the minivan and the Lunchable. (Or worse, convenience-mart hot dogs and latchkey kids.) I consider it the great hoodwink of my generation. " -Animal, Vegetable, Miracle by Barbara Kingsolver. I HIGHLY recommend this book!
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