Hindsight is 20/20

Have you guys read Penelope Trunk's latest blog about the blueprint women should follow to be happier? Very provocative...I've been nearly-obsessed with it for 24 hours.

I don't know if it's that I agree with some of her points or that I admire the way she has so unabashedly drawn completely inflammatory (but logical) conclusions based on the research she cites. I mean, yes, you're going to piss people off when you say things like:

Get plastic surgery.This is the must-have career tool for the workforce of the new millennium. You will earn more money and you will have more opportunities for mentoring. Also, you will have a wider choice of men, which, of course, is another way to earn more money.

But I kind of respect the fact that she doesn't care about pissing people off because it's true. I should admit that I also may be giving her more latitude because she has Asperger's, which probably explains why she's so blunt. (There's also the fact that she's nuts, which I want to make clear is a separate condition from the Asperger's.)

The big picture of what she's saying is that you'll ultimately be happier if you're financially secure enough to do what you want to do as you get older - including having the freedom to stay home with your kids. I don't disagree with that at all. (The homeschool statement is out of place and unfounded, although I agree that our current school system doesn't work.)

The conflict, of course, is that the time period in which she's talking about women being laser focused on increasing their earning potential is also sort of the time you're allowed to be somewhat directionless and not earn any money because you've got so many ideals or so much passion or whatever...and we need a period like in our lives, right?

Because having enough money after you have kids to pay a nanny and a housekeeper and a tutor is not the same as being able to take a summer off to backpack around Europe.

Still, I suppose that logic does not apply to such frivolities as being poor on purpose and finding yourself. I don't know that the "finding yourself" period actually works, anyway. I'm still trying to figure out wtf I want to do with my life and I'm way past her target demographic for this blueprint...

I have to admit that part of me wishes I'd been more focused on earning as much money as I could before I had kids because being ambitious at work pretty much escaped me once those babies were born (I'm happy to say that it's since returned, but it took years).

Still, I'm not really sure what kind of women we'll have if they all emerge from college with a singular focus on finding a husband and staying as pretty as possible in order to increase future earning potential...it freaks me out a little.

So the only conclusion I can really draw is this: The idea of 20-somethings going through life with a blueprint centered around a man and kids might seem great when you're 45 and looking back...but maybe that's just because you've had the luxury of living a life with the freedom to follow your heart...damn the consequences.