Shawna R. B. Atteberry

Singing Owl says, This is a Friday Five about LABOR. All can play. Put down that hammer, that spoon, that rolling pin, that rake, that pen, that commentary, that lexicon, and let’s have some fun.

1. Tell us about the worst job you ever had.

Working at the call center for The Disney Catalog. I have repressed most of the memories and refuse to dig them out of the dark hole they are in.

2. Tell us about the best job you ever had.

I’ve had two: writing and pastoring. Right now I’m just writing, but there are ample opportunities to serve at my church, and they do have lay pastors and preachers.

3. Tell us what you would do if you could do absolutely anything (employment related) with no financial or other restrictions.

I’m one of the lucky ones who gets to do what I want to do. I’ve always wanted to be a full-time writer, and I have been for the last two years. Woot!

4. Did you get a break from labor this summer? If so, what was it and if not, what are you gonna do about it?

Yes, I took mini-breaks here and there, exploring Chicago and getting together with friends. My mom was also up earlier this month, and we had a lot of fun.

5. What will change regarding your work as summer morphs into fall? Are you anticipating or dreading?

I’m anticipating it. Fall is my favorite time of year, and my creativity soars. I should get lots of writing done. Plus I will be working on my novel, and I know Fall will give me all sorts of wonderful creativity for that.

I’ve never been a great housekeeper. Normally I’m barely a passable housekeeper. I watched my mom work all day then come home and clean and clean and clean. I decided that I was not going to do that. (I made it very clear to my husband before we married that I would not be doing all the housework.) Housework was not that important. It didn’t help that for the last two years I’ve struck out as a freelance writer and do a lot of work from home, where a lot of the time I feel like a glorified housewife. But lately my feelings have been changing, and I have been wanting a cleaner house and less piles. I’ve always been a pile person, and it used to not bother me. But now it’s getting cumbersome and tiresome. I think it’s because I’m getting older, and I just don’t have the energy to dig through piles to find one piece of paper or a book. Plus I really do like being able to see the top of my coffee table and not have to crawl over a pile of books to get into bed.

Of course this put me into a crisis mode. After all I’m a feminist. I’m a feminist who came out of the group of Christians who think the highest calling for a woman is to be a wife, mother, and yes, housewife. So for me to admit that keeping house wasn’t that bad (and might even better), was nothing short of an existential crisis. And before you start gloating, Mom, I’m still not going to clean like you do. I still think you cleaned far too much. There has to be a happy medium between piles and dust and spotless clean. Then an online friend, k8tthleate introduced to me a wonderful book: Home Comforts: The Art and Science of Keeping House by Cheryl Mendelson.  The book begins with these words:

I am a working woman with a secret life: I keep house. An off-and-on lawyer and professor in public, in private I launder and clean, cook from the hip, and devote serious time and energy to a domestic routine not so different from the one that defined my grandmothers as “housewives.”

I think what I like most about Mendelson is her emphasis on house-keeping. Oh yes, there is cleaning, but that is just one part of keeping a home and making it a place of welcome for the family, comfortable to live in, and a space we feel comfortable inviting friends into. I’ve discovered that’s what I want to do: I want to keep a home. I want to be able to invite people over without having to do a hurricane cleaning out before they come over (again not as easy to do now I’m no longer 20-something). I’m taking baby steps: putting stuff away, finding homes for things, and vacuuming and mopping on a more regular basis (once a month really isn’t enough). And we’ll see how it goes.

Are you doing things you didn’t think you’d do? Are there things you’re changing your mind about?

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I have a habit of reading seven or eight books at the same time. I really try to just read one fiction and one nonfiction at a time, but that never happens. It starts with two books, and before I know I’ve got a stack I’m reading. Here’s what I’m reading now.

Non-fiction

10 Lies the Church Tells Women J. Lee Grady

Jesus as Mother: Studies in the Spirituality of the High Middle Ages (Center for Medieval and Renaissance Studies, UCLA) by Caroline Walker Bynum

Reading the Women of the Bible: A New Interpretation of Their Stories by Tikva Frymer-Kensky

The Answer: Grow Any Business, Achieve Financial Freedom, and Live an Extraordinary Life by John Assaraf and Murray Smith

Home Comforts: The Art and Science of Keeping House by Cheryl Mendelson

Fiction

The Enchantress of Florence: A Novel by Salman Rushdie

In a Glass Darkly (Oxford World’s Classics) by Sheridan Le Fanu

Quite the collection, huh? What are reading?

Photo by ijsendoorn.

My husband does not wear the pants in this household. Neither do I. That honor goes to the Queen Diva: Victoria.

The Diva lounging on one of her royal subjects.

No, I am not moving. I don’t care how many times that thing flashes in my face.

Today I found out where The Diva gets her human-care training: Guidelines for Cats. I’m onto you now.

So what furry, feathered, or scaley creature rules your household?

I’m very disturbed by some of the things I’ve been reading lately. It’s nothing that is in the news. I’m researching the opposing side for my book proposal, the complementarian side (I am not putting in links because I refuse to refer traffic to their sites. If you Google “complementarian,” you will find plenty of sites). This is a group who thinks that men and women were created equal as humans but that they have different roles due to their genders. They believe that woman was created to be a helper to her husband and must always submit to a man’s authority. They believe men were created to be leaders, protectors, and guardians. Women are to be helpers, nurturers, and mothers. A women’s place should be in the home, and she shouldn’t aspire to work outside of the home to keep herself free for ministry. When she doesn’t work then after she takes care of the kids and the house, her free time will be left for building God’s kingdom. Some of the voluntary suggestions for “ministry” are:

• prison chaplain
• ministries to the handicapped
• ministries to the sick, including nursing and hospice work
• being a teacher, including K-12 teacher

These are all full-time jobs, which take education and training to perform. Now they also suggest the truly voluntary ministries of music in the church, Sunday School teacher, PTA, and volunteering for organizations that work with the poor, abused, and addicitons. But several of these “voluntary” ministries are full-time positions and careers. So it’s okay for a woman to technically work full-time as long as she doesn’t get paid?

In her book Equal to Serve: Women and Men Working Together Revealing the Gospel, Gretchen Gaebelein Hull points out that once something that women did becomes something men do, then it’s worth charging for. How much did midwives make? Really? When men took over medicine then money came into play. Things that women do are normally seen as less valuable economically than what men do. Women having been cooking and feeding their families for years. But a small percentage of women are chefs who bring down big money.

When you consider the careers that women had in the Bible, I do not understand this “you can work as long as you volunteer” mentality. Deborah was a prophet and judge. The Proverbs 31 woman made and sold textiles and materials plus bought and sold land. She was a merchant. In the New Testament Lydia was also a merchant, and Priscilla worked with her husband Aquila to make tents. None of them volunteered their services. They worked, made money, and helped support their families economically.

I think Christians need to reclaim the word “vocation.” At one time Christians believed that you brought God with you on any job you had, whether you were a priest or a blacksmith. You did your work as unto God because God governed all of life. You built God’s kingdom in whatever career you had. It did not have to be a church position. We need to reclaim vocation, especially women. God calls women, as well as men, to work in the secular world in business, schools, government, and a myriad of other careers. We are called to bring God with us, and build God’s kingdom where we’re at. Just as the women in the Bible worked outside of the home, so can women today.

Related Posts:

Why Career Women of the Bible?
Does It Really Mean “Helpmate”?
The 12th Century B. C. E. Career Woman
Made in the Image of God: Female

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In an op-ed in last week’s New York Times, Paul Krugman describes the “Me Caveman, you be scared” tactics of the Republican party, and how the GOP wants to make anyone who doesn’t agree with them look weak and not able to lead the country. He quoted Minnesota Representative Michele Bachmann saying that Democrats

want Americans to move to the urban core, live in tenements, take light rail to their government jobs.

Dear Rep. Bachmann,

First I’m an Independent and not a Democrat. Second I’m a middle class white woman who lives in the urban core of Chicago. I do not live in a tenement, but in a condo with a great lake view. I do not have a government job. I am self-employed, and I take Chicago’s L and busses all over the city to research and work. I don’t have a car. I don’t need a car. And I don’t want a car.

I think you need to get out of your cookie-cutter suburban neighborhood (and off Capitol Hill) and take a look at what urban cores actually look like.

Sincerely,
Shawna R. B. Atteberry

P. S. Since you haven’t seem to notice: D. C.’s public transit rocks. I loved taking it when I visited earlier this year.

Hattip to Rachel Frey.

This week’s Gospel reading was Matthew 14:22-33, which is Peter walking on the water to meet Jesus, who was already walking on the water. My priest had a different take on this passage than one I have heard before. His take is that Peter wasn’t supposed to be out of the boat in the first place. He interpreted the boat as the world and the water as some kind of ecstatic, guru bliss that we want to stay in instead of the world. That’s not where Peter is supposed to be. We’re not supposed to be there either. We aren’t saved by ourselves out in the eternal beyond. Jesus put Peter back in the boat with the other eleven disciples. Then Jesus got into the boat, and the storm that had been tossing the boat around stopped. We are to be in this world. We are to work out our salvation together in this world. We are to build the kingdom of God in the here and now.

This reflects Jesus’ earthly ministry. Jesus came to this world; he came to us. He walked and ministered in this world, and then he told us to continue his ministry of love and compassion to the world around us. I like this new way to look at this story. What do you think?