Identity

Hi. My name is Kendra Stanton Lee.

I am an American-born woman, a wife, and a mother of two.

I prefer to go by my full name. The family into which I was born and the family into which I chose to marry are equally important to me.

I have a master's degree. I was able to attend graduate school because my husband supported me: my dreams and my finances.

I teach full-time. I love my job. I like it when people ask me whether I like my job. I like it less when people ask me who cares for my children while I am working. When my husband worked three jobs, people never seemed to ask him the same question.

I was nursing my baby boy until two days ago. I love tucking my children into bed.

I believe my husband is the spiritual leader of our home. I do not, however, believe that he is always right.

I receive a paycheck in my name that is more than my husband earns per month. However, I believe we are both earning the same amount. Whatever is mine is his. It is unimportant whose name is on the paycheck because we are both working hard toward a goal united: to support our family.

I am uninterested in identifying myself as a feminist.

I more interested in claiming my personhood as woman who struggles mightily to be more like Jesus Christ.

There are women like I am everywhere.

Someday there may be more of us; I am raising one of them.

Popcorn

There once was a bowl of fluffy salty popcorn...

It became perilously perched.

Guess what happened next.

Um, Mom?

Popcorn and consumer restored to more stable positioning.

***

On a more serious note, I have felt convicted recently of my poor attitude toward housework, overturned popcorn bowls withstanding.  There is a place to feel defeated and there is a time to admit that it's too much for one person.  But I have recently been such a Whiney Wendy about the whole thing.  I have failed to see the blessing that may come from housework.  God has given me this work to do, and being an able-bodied person with a husband that loves me, I really should not complain.  I really should be humbled by this work and consider it a joy to do it for my family, and in extension for the Lord.

"Work hard and cheerfully at whatever you do,
as though you were working for the Lord
rather than for people."

~Colossians 3:23

American

I believe that all politics are local. If you want to effect change, you are not going to see it by starting an anti-Palin group on Facebook. You are going to see it by knocking on some doors and having some conversations. I believe abortion is wrong, but I fear for outlawing it - wholly and inclusively - without a deliberate and paced process that seeks to educate and to shift the emphasis of women's rights to glass ceilings, maternity and childcare rights, and protection against domestic violence.

I am pro socialized medicine, as long as it is a system that is built slowly and smartly, which could take decades. Any professor of sociology will tell you that systems that are overhauled too quickly will crumble just as quickly, i.e. look at the USSR.

I believe the children of undocumented immigrants are not at fault and that they should be educated and naturalized, using public resources if necessary. Don't educate them and they become an even greater burden to society. The money that could have been expended on their educations will inevitably be spent on their defense, their incarceration when they cannot find jobs and turn to lives of crime.

I was not opposed to going to war with Iraq. The Hussein family were raping and pillaging their own countrymen; they are sociopaths. I was opposed, however, to the timing of our hasty war and to the fact that the US has no concept of geography, had no exit strategy, and still has very little of the same.

I am not opposed to gay marriage. I am opposed to homosexuals becoming a "protected class" - protected by the government on all accounts - such that doctors who would be betraying religious conviction are forced to inseminate homosexuals or face prosecution.

I do not believe it is the business of government to deny religious freedoms. If, for example, governments at the state and the national level enact blue laws, that is, Sunday laws where businesses are barred from doing business on Sunday, and Sunday becomes the national day of worship, it *is* the business of government to protect those that do not share these practices, that are discriminated against for keeping sabbath on Saturday. But in general, I am for the separation of church and state.

I believe prison is no place for drug addicts. I believe the justice system is racist, favors the wealthy, does little to rehabilitate criminals. I believe poverty is not a cause for violence and addiction, but I believe that violence and addiction are viruses that stem from the bacteria of poverty, and that no one wants to be poor. I believe a society where people have resources to overcome poverty is one that can prosper, and that is what true prosperity is to me.