XTC - Mayor of Simpleton

As I lay in bed last night, I realized I made an error in my last post. If The Style Council released My Ever Changing Moods in 1983, 24 years ago, than I was eleven at the time of the release, and not twelve as I kept insisting. Clearly I am getting so old that I can't even remember how old I am and, like a teenager desperate to get into the clubs, I am adding years to my age. Or maybe I just can't do math.

Linda Hirshman would suggest this is a direct result of my turning my back on my elite education to be a stay at home mom (and actress and writer, I say desperately, not wanting to be considered "just" a SAHM, because I have internalized the disapproval which Hirshman voices). Obviously, all the knowledge I may have once had has slowly leaked out my ears to be replaced by information regarding Clifford the Big Red Dog.

Total digression here: how the heck could one little girl's love cause the dog to grow so big? And if you were Emily Elizabeth's parents, wouldn't you be sortof annoyed that your daughter's love caused the dog to grow so big that you had to leave the city and move to an island? Sorry, but if this were our household, the dog would have to go. But I am a bad mother.

Well, I have a lot of opinions about Linda Hirshman and the Mommy Wars, about how I think she is to feminism what Candace Bushnell is to singlehood (except no one has smartened up her storylines for HBO), how I think it is unfair to slag other women and the choices they make (though I realize I am doing just that when criticizing Hirshman and Bushnell), how having a big fancy career isn't the path for everyone (even if you are really intelligent and well educated) and how success is no guarantee of happiness, but I think Andy Partridge says it best, "If depth of feeling is a currency then I'm the man who grew the money tree. Some of your friends are too brainy to see that their paupers and that's how they'll stay."

I must admit, I feel a lot like the girl in this video. While I find it invaluable and wouldn't change a thing with regards to my education, I sometimes feel all this knowledge has chained me up and kept me from completely living my life. I fight against the voices in my head which tell me to be serious and profound and do something IMPORTANT, because, in truth, I would rather spend my time posing around London in stylish clothes and telling people where to place the chess pieces. Oh, and swooning behind a screen when the Mayor takes off his hat and plants a kiss on me.

PS. go read Karrie's blog.