careers for non-conformists

So, I read somewhere that direct-entry midwifery was listed in a book called, I think, Careers for Non-Conformists. Trouble is, I already suspected long ago that the life's work I've chosen is not for sissies. And not for those who shy away from politics.

Welcome to my humble chronicle. Over the next three years, my long-held wish to become a midwife will come to fruition.

My mother used to sing a song to me when I was a kid, called "Little Boxes". More precisely, she used to sing the first verse to me. For that reason I don't think she realised that it's more of an activist anthem than a lullaby... I think she sang it to me because it has a strangely compelling, soothing melody. But kudos to her for lulling me to sleep with such subversive stuff.

Little Boxes
by Malvina Reynolds

Little boxes on the hillside, little boxes made of ticky tacky
Little boxes on the hillside, little boxes all the same
There's a green one and a pink one and a blue one and a yellow one
And they're all made out of ticky tacky and they all look just the same.

And the people in the houses all went to the university
Where they were put in boxes and they came out all the same,
And there's doctors and there's lawyers, and business executives
And they're all made out of ticky tacky and they all look just the same.

And they all play on the golf course and drink their martinis dry,
And they all have pretty children and the children go to school
And the children go to summer camp and then to the university
Where they are put in boxes and they come out all the same.

And the boys go into business and marry and raise a family
In boxes made of ticky tacky and they all look just the same.