We see it in the body, that if you just give the body enough rest and comfort, it has remarkable self-healing capacities. Well, so does the spirit.
Gail SheehyRead
I was devastated when I got the review for my first book. The book came out a couple years before the women's movement broke through, and people were putting it down, asking, 'Why does the woman in this book need to get a divorce? Why can't she just shut up and be happy?'
Interpretation
This quote reflects the struggle for women's rights and the societal expectations placed on women during a specific time period.
Gail Sheehy's quote highlights the resistance faced by women who sought independence and self-expression in a time when societal norms dictated that they should be content with traditional roles. It emphasizes the backlash against women's desires for autonomy, illustrating a broader commentary on the social climate surrounding gender equality and personal fulfillment.
In practice
During a book club discussion, to highlight the themes of gender and societal expectations.
We see it in the body, that if you just give the body enough rest and comfort, it has remarkable self-healing capacities. Well, so does the spirit.
No sooner do we think we have assembled a comfortable life than we find a piece of ourselves that has no place to fit in.
A seasoned woman is spicy. She has been marinated in life experiences. Like a complex wine, she can be alternately sweet, tart, sparkling, mellow. She is both maternal and playful. Assured, alluring, and resourceful.
This is something caregivers have to understand: You have to ask for help. You have to realize that you deserve to ask for help. Because you need to keep on working on your own life.
I found that female pathfinders generally integrate characteristics commonly associated with being women - like the capacity to be intimate - with 'male' ones like ambition and courage.
Being a pathfinder is to be willing to risk failure and still go on.
I know the stars are my home. I learned about them, needed them for survival in terms of navigation. I know where I am when I look up at the sky. I know where I am when I look up at the Moon; it's not just some abstract romantic idea, it's something very real to me. See, I've expanded my home.
Every act of disobedience committed due to passion, its forgiveness is hoped for. Every act of disobedience committed due to arrogance, its forgiveness is not hoped for because the root of Satan’s disobedience was arrogance, whereas the root of Adam’s lapse was passion.
My words are the garment of what I shall never be Like the tucked sleeve of a one-armed boy.
Sex is the ersatz or substitute religion of the 20th Century.
When I read profiles of myself, I sometimes think: 'I have spent my whole life struggling to understand my motivations and impulses, and I've never quite sorted them out.'
I agree about Shaw - he is haunted by the mystery he flouts. He is an atheist who trembles in the haunted corridor.
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