One day as I was driving my black Honda Odyssey with XM channel Lucy blaring, I realized that I had finally become a Stepford wife. Here I was, dropping my four year old off to preschool with his Thomas the Train lunchbox, khaki shorts and Spiderman shoes flickering red, my daughter in her Gymboree sun-dress and Dora sippy cup and me in my capri work out pants (giving the impression I was actually going to do something aerobic today) sipping my venti double earl grey tea bags complete with cardboard holder and a packet of sweet and low. Then it really hit me, I’m like everyone else I know in my neighborhood. Sure we vary in political opinions, religion, and size and yes we drive different COLORS of the Honda Odyssey but we seem to all be carbon copies of one another. It was kinda scary. As I passed by the 300 or so women, with varying ages of infants in their Graco strollers, either talking to one another on on their cell phones while doing their morning walks, or when I stopped at the stop light to see several other mothers on their way to drop off their kids to preschool (talking on their cell phones while Little Einstein’s played on the DVD) I wondered if this was really what life was all about. I guess we all live and go through stages, but I never thought about myself in this “ticky tacky” lifestyle. I can’t say that I am unhappy about this, I guess in it’s sameness it strikes me to ponder if this is what we all want for life. How much of our path is truly what we destined it to be and how much of it is this mold in which we grow up into? Is my husband happy with his corporate lifestyle with its long sleeve dress shirts and pressed pants. The hassle of the commute, bosses, corporate butt kissing and travel. Am I happy with my stay at home mom persona? The minivan driving, Starbucks drinking, Build-a-Bear buying, park visiting, laundry washing and folding, mopping, clorox wipe using, swifter dancing across the floors all the while being constantly interrupted by, “MOM MOM MOM MOM MOM MMMMMOOOOOOMMMM! Are my children getting all they can get out of our lives and if we did want to change it, how would we begin to do it? Sell everything we own, buy an RV and travel the world by learning life lessons and septic tank dumping? It’s so easy to follow the same paths as those around you. The questions is, are we following the path we truly want or are we doing what we think we are supposed to do? How long do we work and save and wait for the time when we’re free to do what we want? Too often we think we need to save too much and then we sometimes run out of time in which to truly enjoy it. Or we simply become complacent and never think that there are any other options for us. I guess I wonder how many times we’ve said to ourselves, “one day I’m gonna do THIS!” Why not do it today? What do you think?
** The video is borrowed from http://www.youtube.com/bonzaitri and the song is by: Malvina Reynolds Memories of her mother, by Malvina Reynolds’ daughter who is a very interesting woman, the song is called Little Boxes and is the theme song for the Showtime show (which is great) called Weeds **
