What these books overlook is that we have gone past projecting who we are by what we buy, wear or drive. We have swallowed marketing strategies whole.

We imagine that because we read about advertising strategy we are unaffected by it. We are, supposedly, impermeable, too hip to be influenced by product placement, the barrage of billboards, repetitive television commercials, celebrities. It's not just the Bush administration and the media that thinks that saying something makes it so.

While we claim to be concerned about the environment, we fail to acknowledge how our environment has been created to serve marketers. In our North Face logo jackets, we drive our hybrids with the toxic batteries to Whole Foods to buy extremely dangerous "energy efficient" mercury vapor lamps and organic produce flown from thousands of miles away to make our vegetarian suppers because we care about the planet. 6000 sq foot mansions that required removing trees and displacing wildlife and shiny office towers are marketed as green buildings.

Rather than rebel, we have adopted the image of rebellion. The Rolling Stones, formerly the bad boys of rock and roll, have rolled over and sold songs about dissatisfaction and longing to investment firms. Che Guevarra is on the T-shirts we wear to work at Google. Our American Idol is a mediocre singer.

We live the scene from Monty Python's Life of Brian when Brian leans out the window to send his followers home.

"You are all individuals."

"We are all individuals."

Only now, when one guy pops up out of one of our "free speech zones" and says, "I'm not", we brand and sell his life story as a product.

Rebecca Walker's article is, indeed, sad. It is also remarkably cruel not just in its intentional public humiliation, but it's use of feminism as a weapon to injure not only Alice Walker, but all women who try to go outside traditional role models.

Rebecca's article might have made some useful points about the place and problems of motherhood as part of feminist politics and public policy, but instead it is simply a long, lonesome and loathsome whine. The logic goes: Mom, a feminist and artist, didn't make me happy because Mom wasn't focused on me. Therefore Feminism is bad.

Why isn't writing bad too? Is it because Rebecca does it too or not as well?

Using personal grievance to make political attacks is deplorable. Calling feminists ugly -physically or emotionally - is a way to undermine revolutionary and helpful ideas by attacking and devaluing the proponents. Like questioning Obama'a patriotism because his middle name is Hussein or sending out stories of McCain's illegitimate black child, truth is the first thing to ignore when the object is to discredit a person then, by extension, a policy or position.

The 14 year age difference between Rebecca and her husband may be a coincidence of love. Still, in Rebecca's own words, she "knew (she) had found the man (she) wanted to have a baby with. Gentle, kind and hugely supportive, he is, as (she) knew he would be, the most wonderful father." Not husband, father. She has chosen to commit not to romantic love, but to a role. Her position has a limited horizon, a very short view.

Defending her own house from someone who, by her own admission, is not attacking her, at least not in public, is pointless and self aggrandizing. It is also callow and mean.

I am an expert lighting designer. Unfortunately, I am photosensitive and a migraineur. While I have the physiological predisposition to see an extraordinarily wide range of color and possess an innate sense of intensity, those same attributes make me vulnerable to overstimulation and pain.

I am also an expert in logistics and organization. I can look at traffic patters of things and people then figure out how to move them efficiently and comfortably. This mirrors my keen sense of patterns, one which translates into the ability to argue a point, discern errors in research or flaws in logic.

So, I can light the way, point to what you're looking for, direct you to it, then explain why you might want to consider looking for something else.