“The Revolution of the Forgotten”

The housewife, tired of everything, sat motionless by the doorway in a muffled cry.

She felt lonely, misunderstood, invisible to the world, and to her own family.

Witnessing the countless disappointments of such hopeless woman, the neighbor, a friend for all seasons, decided to lend a helping hand. She bought a book and gave it to that poor creature living a crippled life. When she handed the present to the woman, she spoke matter-of-factly:

“Here, read it! This is important. Then, after that, tell me the effect it had on you!”

The stay-at-home woman, stunned by that strange conversation, which had a kind of psychic tone, accepted the book right away, though with not much hope of having the time to swipe through pages. Stuck in what seemed hopeless monotony, she thought anyhow:

“Maybe the book can at least be of some fun and encouragement in this life of mine already so faded …”

From that time on, after all the hard work done and the whole family been already served, stuffed and retired, the housewife decided to find something to do to fight insomnia. By holding the book in tow, she began reading, still incredulous about the ulterior motive of it.

The book told the story of a stay-at-home mother who opened the window of the house one day and decided to pay a better attention to life outside. It did not take much time to discover that there was a whole world to explore in the reverse side of the window where she was, a place she had never been much away from.

All of a sudden, the housewife reader identified with the housewife character right away, as she was her mirrored image. So, at the end of each day the two women became like soul mates, the best of friends. Overnight, the book became almost the housewife’s bible, epitomizing a kind of treaty of liberation, having the effect of a letter of manumission!

Washing, ironing, cooking, hanging clothes out on the clothesline, understanding, cleansing, scrubbing, sewing, silencing, nourishing the needs of others, etc, etc, etc… were the only action verbs the housewife used to conjugate every single day, nothing else.

She had never had the opportunity to be someone or even think about being someone else in another world beyond the door of her house, as it was the same to all generations and generations of women who came before her.

The housewife’s character from the book became her heroine, counselor, psychologist, confidant, a close friend, and practically Princess Isabel who had the power to unchain her from that unhappy, miserable, colorless, tasteless, and almost paralytic life.

One day, holding tightly the book and collecting a few changes of clothes, the housewife decided to divorce herself from that reality. She commanded her sleepy headed husband to find another beck and call woman and finally brook away from the dungeon, like a bird that discovered accidentally the cage door open and saw in that precise moment, the precious opportunity of getting a brand new life ahead of it.

She went to say goodbye to the neighbor, the only angel to open her eyes to reality, by giving her that book that represented the last straw. The neighbor brought her faith back in life and the book opened the doors for a new horizon of possibilities, something so unthinkable before.

The housewife ran the world as if every day were her last.

By learning about other cultures, she met people of different colors, heard foreign languages that sounded like melody. Also, she witnessed joys, pains, miracles, all as a spectator with the absolute eagerness of an adventurer. Taken by amazement and fascination, she saw that the outside world beyond the invisible bars of “house arrest” in which she lived almost her whole life was beautiful, intriguing, also with its sorrows and imperfections, but so rich in possibilities as she found in that true awakening.

She walked away from sleepwalking toward broad-mindedness.

Afterwards, she became the spokesman of other housewives which, like her, had always felt their roles depreciated, suffocated by sameness, oppression, forgotten in desires, sufferers of lack of love, target of disappointments, and all kinds of vicissitudes, women who had lost their identities living a life of others, nourishing tirelessly with absolute selflessness, women who have had the flame of life almost extinguished.

The revolution of the forgotten caused astonishment and protests by those who had always been used to being served and never realized that servitude could be a very high price in one’s life. One life had to be relinquished to another be highlighted. This was always the life cycle of the housewives, a life of inertia, absence of recognition, and total alienation.

By the time when all the housewives went on strike, the world was never the same for them and for others who had never had the interest to see that those women also had the right to a life with needs, desires and dreams granted, not neglected!

So, those forgotten women’s desires and dreams echoed on the four corners of the earth.

Since then, the world had become more equal, full of love, understanding, respect, happiness, compassion, balance, and wisdom; the wisdom of those who loved and nurtured tirelessly day and night, in spite on their own most intimate trials and tribulations. Only a woman can love unconditionally. This is a great reason for her not be forgotten at the bottom of the home, as if she was an object with expiration date.