The central struggle of parenthood is to let our hopes for our children outweigh our fears. Ellen Goodman More Quotes by Ellen Goodman More Quotes From Ellen Goodman People have been writing premature obituaries on the women's movement since its beginning. Ellen Goodman movement writing people I think most of us become self-critical as soon as we become self-conscious. Ellen Goodman conscious self thinking In the biotech revolution, it is the human body, not iron or steel or plastic, that's at the source. Are the biocapitalists going to be allowed to dig without consent into our genetic codes, then market them? Ellen Goodman iron revolution steel Kerry asks Americans to look at the evidence. Bush asks people to believe. Ellen Goodman believe people looks The central paradox of motherhood is that while our children become the absolute center of our lives, they must also push us backout in the world.... But motherhood that can narrow our lives can also broaden them. It can make us focus intensely on the moment and invest heavily in the future. Ellen Goodman motherhood focus children What advertisers call brand loyalty is merely the consumer's defense against the need to waste energy differentiating among things that barely differ. Ellen Goodman loyalty energy needs Traditions are the guideposts driven deep in our subconscious minds. The most powerful ones are those we can't even describe and aren't even aware of. Ellen Goodman tradition powerful mind Maybe at 20 you can write well, but I don't think you could do what I do. Some things have to happen to you first. Ellen Goodman writing firsts thinking Even if every program were educational and every advertisement bore the seal of approval of the American Dental Association, we would still have a critical problem. It's not just the programs but the act of watching television hour after hour after hour that's destructive. Ellen Goodman after-hours educational television Women have gained access to the institutions, but not enough power to overhaul them. Ellen Goodman access institutions enough I am a member of a small, nearly extinct minority group, a kind of urban lost tribe who insist, in the face of all evidence to the contrary, on the sanctity of being on time. Which is to say that we On-timers are compulsively, unfashionably prompt, that there are only handfuls of us in any given city and, unfortunately, we never seem to have appointments with each other. Ellen Goodman tribes cities faces Who's counting? It was, of course, the minority who were counting. It always is. Most of the women I know today would dearly like to use their fingers and toes for some activity more enthralling than counting. They have been counting for so long. But the peculiar problem of the new math is that every time we stop adding, somebody starts subtracting. At the very least (the advanced students will understand this) the rate of increase slows. ... The minority members of any group or profession have two answers: They can keep score or they can lose. Ellen Goodman math two long Parents remain our touchstones, fellow travelers, even after death. They are both missing and present. Ellen Goodman traveler parent missing I vote because it's what small-d democracy is about. Because there are places where people fight for generations and stand for hours to cast a ballot knowing what we ought to remember: that it makes a difference. Not always a big difference. Not always an immediate difference. But a difference. Ellen Goodman differences fighting knowing I am a political recidivist. An incorrigible, repeat voter. A career lever-pusher. My electoral rap sheet is as long as your arm. Over the course of three decades, I have voted for presidents and school board members. I have voted in high hopes and high dudgeon. I have voted in favor of candidates and merely against their opponents. I have voted for propositions written with such complexity that I needed Noam Chomsky to deconstruct their meaning. I have been a single-issue voter and a marginal voter. I have even voted for people who ran unopposed. Hold an election and I'll be there. Ellen Goodman rap careers school It is not that fathers are better or worse, not that they are more loved or criticized, but rather that they are viewed with far less intensity. There is no Philip Roth or Woody Allen or Nancy Friday who writes about fathers with a runaway excess of humor, horror ... feeling. Most of us let our fathers off the hook. Ellen Goodman friday writing father How many of the people I know - sons and daughters - have intricate abstract expressionist paintings of their mothers, created out of their own emotions, attitudes, hands. And how many have only Polaroid pictures of their fathers. Ellen Goodman daughter mother attitude women who once aspired to the image of superwoman now worry about becoming superdrudge. Those who wanted to have it all now ask whether they have to do it all. Ellen Goodman superwoman becoming worry We each have a litany of holiday rituals and everyday habits that we hold on to, and we often greet radical innovation with the enthusiasm of a baby meeting a new sitter. We defend against it and - not always, but often enough - reject it. Slowly we adjust, but only if we have to. Ellen Goodman holiday innovation baby I don't know exactly why the notion of homeownership has such a grasp on the American imagination. Perhaps as descendants of landless immigrants we turn our plots into symbols of stability. Ellen Goodman plot imagination home
