Wednesday, March 07, 2012

Blog Carnival on Work-Life Logistics

I love the internet sometimes. First, I wrote a post about how I'm still ambitious, even though I am now also a mother. Someone read that post, and emailed me a question about how I make my life work, and I decided to answer that question on my blog, even though I was sure that the details of my daily routine would be pretty boring reading. A lot of people thought otherwise, and that post has lots of comments now, which proves, once again, that I actually have no idea what posts people will like.

Then FeMOMhist took the idea of that post and expanded it, organizing a blog carnival about work-life logistics. While I still think the details of my daily routine are pretty dull, I think that the details of lots of working parents' daily routines will be powerful, because it will be a counter voice to all those voices in our culture telling parents (and especially mothers) that they can't do X, Y, or Z and still be a good parent.

FeMOMhist has timed the blog carnival to coincide with the Blog for International Women's Day, which has a theme of "Connecting Girls, Inspiring Futures." I think this is a great topic for the day. American culture sends so many messages to girls and young women that they can't "have it all" and that they must choose between motherhood and a role in the public realm. That is a false choice, as so many of us are showing with how we live our lives. But our reality is often overlooked, and we are scaring girls and young women into limiting their own options.

So, anyway- go check out the posts FeMOMhist has gathered for her carnival. Since I already wrote my post about my work-life logistics, I won't write another. But I will take a minute to highlight some related posts, both of mine and from other people.

First some links to other people:
And now, a few of my older posts that are relevant to the topic at hand:
 If you have found any good posts about the logistics of making life work when you're living the "full catastrophe"* (to borrow a phrase from Jon Kabat-Zinn in Full Catastrophe Living, who was himself borrowing it from Nikos Kazantzakis in Zorba the Greek)- leave them in the comments.

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* The actual quote from Kabat-Zinn is:
"I keep coming back to one line from the movie of Nikos Kazantzakis's novel Zorba the Greek. Zorba's young companion turns to him at a certain point and inquires, "Zorba, have you ever been married?" to which Zorba replies (paraphrasing somewhat) "Am I not a man? Of course I've been married. Wife, house, kids, everything... the full catastrophe!"


And a little later:
"Ever since I first heard it, I have felt that the phrase "the full catastrophe" captures something positive about the human spirit's ability to come to grips with what is most difficult in life and to find within it room to grow in strength and wisdom. For me, facing the full catastrophe means finding and coming to terms with what is most human in ourselves. There is not one person on the planet who does not have his or her own version of the full catastrophe."


6 comments:

  1. the unicorn post will forever live in my mind! It is one of my all time blog posts EVER

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  2. just recently discovered your blog...looking forward to reading some of these posts this weekend! thanks from another working mama scientist!

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  3. I used to work for a local startup that would have been great for parents. Everyone was out the door by 5:30pm and they rarely had email or work flying around after hours. And 4 years later, they're still around and doing well.

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  4. am going to be clicking on and reading all those lovely links! thanks :)

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  5. I had fun reading everyone's posts. I remain completely fascinated by people's schedules. Life is lived in hours.

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  6. "The full catastrophe" - that is too perfect.

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