Housewives and Homemakers

"The reality and reliability of the human world rest primarily on the fact that we are surrounded by things more permanent than the activity by which they were produced, and potentially even more permanent that the lives of their authors." -Hannah Arendt, Human Condition, page 96

I have the dream of becoming a rural doctor and traveling to remote areas, bringing medicine where it has never been and I am willing to do whatever it takes to get there. However, my dream of becoming a wife and mother far overshadows even that dream. It disheartens me to hear mothers say "I'm just a mom" or "I'm just a housewife." What profession could possibly be greater than cultivating and nurturing new human lives here on planet Earth? What other profession could be more dynamic, more fulfilling, more exhausting, more exciting, more painful, more utterly heart-stopping than bringing life into this world, caring for it, and watching it grow?

I think Hannah Arendt speaks truth when she says that we have to be surrounded by things more permanent than we are in order to give life its reality and reliability. Think of a mother - it could seem like drudgery to wash dishes one more time, or meaningless to do laundry one more time. However, what is the greater thing being accomplished by those "meaningless" tasks? Children are being raised! People are becoming! Lives are being changed in the home! This is perhaps one of the things of permanence of which Arendt speaks. Because of a mother's (and father's, of course) love and care, her children will grow into great adults and begin raising families of their own. In this continuous cycle is permanence...not meaninglessness.

"This is my offering. I think it's the greatest satisfaction in the world to know you've pleased somebody. Everybody has to feel needed. I know I'm needed. I'm doing it for them and they're doing it for me. And that's the way it is." Therese Carter, Working, page 303