I was told recently,
that I need to start a blog about brewing. Okay, I thought, but my life isn't
just about brewing. I do lots of things, brewing being only
one of them. I spin, weave, knit, crochet, sew, embroider, cross stitch, and
cook. I look in the mirror every morning and wonder how to deal with my own
awesomeness.
In short, I'm on a one woman crusade to learn all I can about how women used to live, and the arts they had to master to be considered accomplished. Only one of those was brewing.
I like history, and I like reading and researching the history of women. There isn't much there. Women didn't create what historians call, durable goods. Everything they created was consumed in one way or another. The food they produced, the cloth they spun and wove, the beer, ale, wine and mead they made, all of it was used up until nothing was left. This gives the casual observer the idea that women's work was, somehow, unimportant. This is as far from the truth as can be imagined, but it's still there. Even today, "women's work" is synonymous with unpaid or low paid work, unimportant and unfulfilling.
Women's work is practical. It was all about "What can I do that won't put the children and elders in my care at risk if I take them with me?" So they didn't dig many build many houses or hunt aurochs. They didn't go away from home and fight wars. They tended the houses, they cooked the aurochs and tanned the hides. They wove the cloth that the fighters wore and birthed and raised the next generation. It wasn't their lot in life, it was their life's work.
My life is one of tradition. It's the kind of woman I choose to be. It's not about what I have to do, it's what I find my bliss doing. It's not about taking care of my husband, it's about finding meaning in little things that others overlook. It's not about being lazy or wanting a life of leisure, it's about staying busy practicing arts that connect me to the women that have come before.
Oh, did I mention that I make kick ass beer?? That, too, is women's work.
In short, I'm on a one woman crusade to learn all I can about how women used to live, and the arts they had to master to be considered accomplished. Only one of those was brewing.
I like history, and I like reading and researching the history of women. There isn't much there. Women didn't create what historians call, durable goods. Everything they created was consumed in one way or another. The food they produced, the cloth they spun and wove, the beer, ale, wine and mead they made, all of it was used up until nothing was left. This gives the casual observer the idea that women's work was, somehow, unimportant. This is as far from the truth as can be imagined, but it's still there. Even today, "women's work" is synonymous with unpaid or low paid work, unimportant and unfulfilling.
Women's work is practical. It was all about "What can I do that won't put the children and elders in my care at risk if I take them with me?" So they didn't dig many build many houses or hunt aurochs. They didn't go away from home and fight wars. They tended the houses, they cooked the aurochs and tanned the hides. They wove the cloth that the fighters wore and birthed and raised the next generation. It wasn't their lot in life, it was their life's work.
My life is one of tradition. It's the kind of woman I choose to be. It's not about what I have to do, it's what I find my bliss doing. It's not about taking care of my husband, it's about finding meaning in little things that others overlook. It's not about being lazy or wanting a life of leisure, it's about staying busy practicing arts that connect me to the women that have come before.
Oh, did I mention that I make kick ass beer?? That, too, is women's work.
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