Spiritual Enlightenment for the Struggling Housewife

For generations, women (and okay, a couple of men) have struggled to make things work in the home. And it is a struggle. For approximately 995 or 996 of the last 1000 generations, there was NOTHING to make this daily struggle easier. For 20,000 years, not much changed and all women had to fall back on at the end of the day was a belief in a higher purpose, a great reward at the end of all of their travails. It was only the deliverer of this great reward that varied...call Him Jehovah, Mohammed, Ganesh, Buddha or Good Ole' J.C. ... the result was the same. The human race saw The Point and kept the struggle alive.

The aforementioned deities have had (and still do have) a well-deserved place in our hearts. We are, by nature, a species that wants to band together. We want to believe. We want a community of people with beliefs in common and most of us want to be a part of it. That's great. Really. But, here's the part that would have gotten me burned at the stake in less enlightened times: I believe that the struggling housewife achieves spiritual enlightenment from a second source. That source is called modern convenience.

Technology has been gradually lifting the burden of work off of the backs of humans and into the circuit boards and engines of our friends The Machines. Now don't go all Terminator on me and forget what these Machines are good for. Would you be sitting there reading my masterwork if not for the magic of computation? Would it not take you a week to commute into the city for your job that now (thankfully-hah!) only takes 2-3 hours out of your busy day? And for those dear to my own heart... we Housewives... we don't remember the days when we had to beat our laundry on a rock with a stick. We don't remember the days when we had to sweep the whole house with a switch broom. We mommies certainly don't care to remember the days before epidurals, breastpumps and (oh my) Sitz baths.

I'll argue that the best modern convenience is one that most of us (but not me) haven't yet had the pleasure of enjoying. That would be The Robot that cleans the floor for you while you sip iced tea and lift your feet every once in awhile. This is the path to true spiritual enlightenment. We housewives no longer want to wait for the ever after. We're part of a society which wants our reward now. Instant gratification is the name of the game, Baby. Enjoy that iced tea and the calisthenics. The five loads of laundry, unmade beds, and germy bathroom floor can wait. Come to think of it...so can the kid's runny nose, spelling homework and escaping ants from the ant farm. We're busy reaping the benefits of living in the Modern World. The only thing most of us are missing is the deity herself. The Cleaning Lady. Oh no, wait... that's me:

The Domestic Goddess.

I guess I'd better get to work.