The Myths of Motherhood

This excerpt is taken from The Myths of Motherhood by Shari Thurer in 1994. I think it's worth reading and thinking about:

"The psychological research to date continually looks for bad outcomes from maternal employment and other-than-mother care instead of looking for bad outcomes from the lack of societal supports to mothers. In other words, the way psychologists have been framing their research questions reflects the culture's idealized myth of motherhood. So while research had failed to demonstrate the deleterious effects of day care, it has also failed to demonstrate the deleterious effects of no day care - because it did not set out to find them. The unfortunate result is that our psychological research has inadvertently contributed to the maintenance of the status quo, instead of stimulating questions about social change and help for mothers."

While this excerpt is taken from Perfect Madness: Motherhood in the Age of Anxiety by Judith Warner:

"Instead of saying, 'I feel terrible. I feel guilty,' maybe [women] can take these results and advocate for [national] family-leave policies that create more options for mothers of babies," said researcher Jeanne Brooks-Gunn, the lead author of the 2002 day-care study, as she expressed her frustration with all the hand-wringling and guilt expressed in the study's wake by working mothers. "Every other industrialized nation had done it. Why can't we?"

Let me know what you think!

Commencement Speech

This was the speech Ted Koppel of Nightline gave at the commencement exercises at Duke University. This speech is also in the book Scandalgate:Exposing America's Moral Deficit Disorder by Kenneth J. Brown.
This speech took place more than a decade ago, and it shocked the audiences then, but I think the idea is very valid still today.

"In the place of truth we have discovered facts; for moral absolutes we have substitued moral ambiguity. We now communicate with everone and say absolutely nothing. We have reconstructed the Tower of Babel and it is a television antenna, a thousand voices producing a daily parody of democracy in which everyone's opinion is afforded equal weight regardless of substance or merit....

We have actually convinced ourselves that slogans will save us. Shoot up if you must, but use a clean needle. Enjoy sex whenever and with whomever you wish, but wear a condom. No! The answer is No! Not because it isn't cool or smart or because you might end up in jail or dying in an AIDS ward, but No! because it's wrong....

In its purest form, truth is not a polite tap on the shoulder. It is a howling reproach. What Moses brought down from Mount Sinai were not the Ten Suggestions. They are commandments. Are, not were. The sheer brilliance of the Ten Commandments is that they codify in a handful of words acceptable human behavior, not just for then or now, but for all time."

More on C.S. Lewis

Here are some more great C.S. Lewis quotes:

“Miracles are a retelling in small letters of the very same story which is written across the whole world in letters too large for some of us to see.”

“I believe in Christianity as I believe that the sun has risen: not only because I see it, but because by it I see everything else.”

Love

This is one of the best quotes I have ever read.

“To love at all is to be vulnerable. Love anything, and your heart will certainly be wrung and possibly broken. If you want to make sure of keeping it intact, you must give your heart to no one, not even to an animal. Wrap it carefully round with hobbies and little luxuries; avoid all entanglements; lock it up safe in the casket or coffin of your selfishness. But in that casket- safe, dark, motionless, airless--it will change. It will not be broken; it will become unbreakable, impenetrable, irredeemable.”

-C.S. Lewis

Another Great Quote

Here is another great quote from Scandalgate:Exposing America's Moral Deficit Disorder by Kenneth J. Brown:

Alexis de Tocqueville was one of the most enthusiastic tourists to ever grace our shores. This perceptive French-man toured the United States in 1835, chronicling his stimulating discoveries. One of his most famous dictums appeared at first glance to be a wonderful compliment. In reality it embodied a colossal warning:

"I sought for the greatness and genius of America in her commodious harbors and ample rivers, and it was not there. Not until I went into the churches of America and heard her pulpits aflame with righteousness did I understand the secret of her genius and power....America is great because she is good, and if America ever ceases to be good, she will cease to be great."

Scandalgate

This is an excerpt from a book I just finished titled:

Scandalgate: Exposing America's Moral Deficit Disorder

by Kenneth J. Brown

This quote is discussing the practices of the Clinton Administration during the Monica Lewinsky scandal and I thought it is particulary true about politics in general, even still today.

"Bludgeon your opponent. Win at all costs. Truth doesn't matter. Survival does. Whatever it takes to outlast your opponent is all that matters. Winning isn't everything. It's the only thing.

Welcome to the postmodern world."

p.102

Words

This comes from Wordsmith.org:

The stock market may go up and down, the economy may go boom or bust, but as writer Christopher Morley once said, "Words are a commodity in which there is never any slump."

A THOUGHT FOR TODAY:
Words are the only things that last forever; they are more durable than the eternal hills. -William Hazlitt, essayist (1778-1830)

Marie Curie

I just read a little bit about the pioneering Polish-born French chemist, who was the first person to win Nobel Prizes in two different fields. She was born in Warsaw in 1867 and Polish schools would not admit women. Since she could not go to school, she worked as a governess instead and sent her sister to medical school in France. Then her sister sent Curie to Sorbonne, where Curie met her husband, Pierre Curie. The couple studied radiology and discovered two new chemical elements and invented the term "radioactivity." Marie Curie died in 1934 but was an asset to the science world.

Curie said, "Nothing in life is to be feared, it is only to be understood."

For Sean

How much do I love thee?

Go ask the deep sea

How many rare gems

In its coral caves be,

Or ask the broad billows,

That ceaselessly roar

How many bright sands

So they kiss on the shore?

-Mary Ashley Townsend, 19th-century American essayist, poet and novelist

Since I'm in the Business...

I found this quote and thought it was cute since I work in the automotive business:

"Hate is sand in the machinery of life - love is oil."

-This quote was taken from Wings of Silver compiled by Jo Petty

Curiosity Doesn't Kill the Cat

"The important thing is not to stop questioning. Curiosity has its own reason for existing. One cannot help but be in awe when he contemplates the mysteries of eternity, of life, of the marvelous structure of reality. It is enough if one tries merely to comprehend a little of this mystery every day. Never lose a holy curiosity."

-Albert Einstein

US (German-born) physicist (1879 - 1955)

Many people tell me I ask too many questions. But if I did not ask questions, I would not know anything. I would not find out information that could be important for me or beneficial information that I could pass on. I am always curious. Sometimes I may find information that I really do not want to know. Yet, I still believe that curiosity is a valuable trait that I possess.