Control is a big issue when you're sick. It's the first thing you lose - other losses come later. Letty Cottin Pogrebin More Quotes by Letty Cottin Pogrebin More Quotes From Letty Cottin Pogrebin Illness is the proving ground of friendship. Letty Cottin Pogrebin illnessprovefriendship I didn't anticipate the primal quality of my pleasure, the raw physicality of it, the way my whole body leaps forward when I see my grandsons after a few days' absence. Letty Cottin Pogrebin grandparentqualitybody A family stitched together with love seldom unravels. Letty Cottin Pogrebin quiltsfamilytogether When the president of the United States flicks the switch to light up the Christmas tree on the White House lawn, that house ceases to be an American symbol; it becomes a Christian symbol. Letty Cottin Pogrebin lightchristianwhite Although Freud said happiness is composed of love and work, reality often forces us to choose love or work. Letty Cottin Pogrebin happinesslovereality Housework is the only activity at which men are allowed to be consistently inept because they are thought to be so competent at everything else. Letty Cottin Pogrebin competentactivitymen America is a nation fundamentally ambivalent about its children, often afraid of its children, and frequently punitive toward its children. Letty Cottin Pogrebin rehabilitationchildrenamerica The family endures because it offers the truth of mortality and immortality within the same group. The family endures because, better than the commune, kibbutz, or classroom, it seems to individualize and socialize its children, to make us feel at the same time unique and yet joined to all humanity, accepted as is and yet challenged to grow, loved unconditionally and yet propelled by greater expectations. Only in the family can so many extremes be reconciled and synthesized. Only in the family do we have a lifetime in which to do it. Letty Cottin Pogrebin uniqueexpectationschildren Friendships aren't perfect and yet they are very precious. For me, not expecting perfection all in one place was a great release. Letty Cottin Pogrebin expectingperfectionperfect To me, a person's identity is composed of both an 'I' and a 'we.' The 'I' finds itself in love, work, and pleasure, but it also locates itself within some meaningful group identity - a tribe, a community, a 'we.' America is too big and bland a tribe for most of us. Letty Cottin Pogrebin communitymeaningfulamerica Work-family conflicts - the trade-offs of your money or your life, your job or your child - would not be forced upon women with such sanguine disregard if men experienced the same career stalls caused by the-buck-stops-here responsibility for children. Letty Cottin Pogrebin workjobschildren
