Follow-up on the musings of motherhood--

The heroine of this new book are women, one finally blossoming into a surprising, life-defining focused role of motherhood much as a lifeline to her own personal salvation.

And this theme and debate--motherhood as privilage/salvation opposed to burden/sacrifice somehow continues to simmer.  If one could choose part-time motherhood, as many grandparents suddenly relish, giving it up once you're satiated, probably every woman would choose thus.  As comes to mind the bumper sticker--"The reward for not killing your kids are your grandchildren"

 But more and more, choosing motherhood is the greatest question most women face.  If for no other reason than choice is becoming the operative word 
here, and easier and easier.  Not just because of that boogyman word 'abortion', but because at least in the West, we have more choices than ever.

One doesn't even need a relationship, or even a man anymore; women can wed science.  Test tube babies, in vitro fertilization, adoption, sperm banking in all its forms, foster parenting; the choices, as well as the ramifications are almost endless. Meanwhile,  the pressures we place upon the choice have heightened.

From one side--the joys of motherhood, from the other the endless burden.  From one school--the societal pressure to have children, from the other one's career should be foremost and not sacrificed; or even more complex these days, one is expected to have a satisfying, successful career AND  raise a family.  On one hand--one should wait till the perfect man/partner/parent shows up, on the other hand the alternative paradigms multiply--single gender families, single mothers, step-parenting, secret affairs that lead to confused parenting, the list goes on.  And of course the flip side validation of being one desirable enough that someone else desirable would want to make babies with.

So is motherhood the most noble and sacred act a woman can perform, or is it merely the same innate biological necessity that all species cannot resist, and therefore just proves an inability to fully actualize oneself in more sophisticated cultural capacities?  Often it appears that much more difficult to just 'keep up with the Joneses' without experieincing motherhood and takes an extra inner personal strength. Draft dodger, or cultural warrior?  Nobler to spread ones wisdom, or spread ones seed; or should one expect to do both equally well? I think these types of questions confound most women at one time or another.

And so, my book meditates primarily through women's consciousness, because in some ways, in comparison, men's life's questions are barren and more one-dimensional.