Lindbergh 痛苦而幽默地意識到為什麼很少聖人是已婚女性：It has to do primarily with distractions. The bearing, rearing, feeding and educating of children; the running of a house with its thousand details; human relationships with their myriad pulls – woman』s normal occupations in general un counter to creative life, or contemplative life, or saintly life. 說得多好，這就難怪我不 creative, 不 contemplative, 不 saintly了。
Lindbergh 說，在海邊居住可以學會「放下的藝術」或者說「脫掉的藝術」（the art of shedding）, 首先脫掉clothes, 不必擔心穿什麼好，放下虛榮（vanity）； 然後脫掉 shelter，不必住多大多好的房子，放下驕傲(pride )；最後脫下面具，放下人際關係中的虛偽（hypocrisy）。 I shall ask into my shell only those friends with whom I can be completely honest… The most exhausting thing in life is being insincere. That is why so much of social life is exhausting; one is wearing a mask…
她還感嘆女性的家務勞動沒有升職也沒有稱讚，除了孩子之外，她們的成果通常看不見: we do not see the results of our giving as concretely as man does in his work. 為什麼女性這麼容易感覺疲勞呢？ 因為她們的付出很多不是 purposeful giving: purposeful giving 不那麼容易消耗自身資源，即使損耗，同時也在更新和補充。可惜許多女性 「no longer fed by a feeling of indispensability or purposefulness, we are hungry, and not knowing what we are hungry for, we fill up the void with endless distractions…」
她認為每個女性都應該有獨處的時間，每年，每周，每天。工資再低的工人都有周末和法定假日，母親和家庭婦女是唯一沒有休假日的工人。現代化帶走了家務勞動中的藝術美感，卻保留了費時費力的苦活——和廣告宣傳的恰恰相反。「the curtain of mechanization has come down between the mind of the hand.」
未完待續……
