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We criticize mothers for closeness. We criticize fathers for distance. How many of us have expected less from our fathers and appreciated what they gave us more? How many of us always let them off the hook?
Ellen Goodman
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Ellen Goodman
Age: 83
Born: 1941
Born: April 11
Journalist
Newton
Massachusetts
Always
Expected
Distance
Closeness
Appreciate
Hook
Gave
Appreciated
Less
Parenting
Father
Fathers
Mother
Mothers
Many
Criticize
More quotes by Ellen Goodman
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.
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Statistically speaking, the Cheerful Early Riser is rejected more completely than a member of any other subculture, save those with boot odor.
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Alternative Lifestyles, the emotional fly-drive packages of our times, come equipped with a set of clothes, a choice of authors, a limited menu of sports and a discount coupon book of clichés.
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[E]very time you think the entertainment moguls have hit rock bottom, they reach for the jackhammer and rat-a-tat-tat a little deeper.
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It has begun to occur to me that life is a stage I'm going through.
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I think most of us become self-critical as soon as we become self-conscious.
Ellen Goodman
I have never been especially impressed by the heroics of people convinced they are about to change the world. I am more awed by those who struggle to make one small difference.
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Women have gained access to the institutions, but not enough power to overhaul them.
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Taboos are falling across our culture like dominoes. What was unspeakable yesterday dominates talk shows today.
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instant opinion is an oxymoron. You don't get real opinions in an instant. You get reactions.
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You can fire your secretary, divorce your spouse, abandon your children. But they remain your co-authors forever.
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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.
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Once upon a time we were just plain people. But that was before we began having relationships with mechanical systems. Get involved with a machine and sooner or later you are reduced to a factor.
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The great myth of our work-intense era is 'quality time.' We believe we can make up for the loss of days or hours, especially with each other, by concentrated minutes. But ultimately there is no way to do one-minute mothering. There is no way to pay attention in a hurry.
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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.
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Parents remain our touchstones, fellow travelers, even after death. They are both missing and present.
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Welfare is ... the victim of national compassion fatigue.
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I rewrite a great deal. I'm always fiddling, always changing something. I'll write a few words - then I'll change them. I add. I subtract. I work and fiddle and keep working and fiddling, and I only stop at the deadline.
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Saving time, it seems, has a primacy that's too rarely examined.
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There's a trick to the Graceful Exit. It begins with the vision to recognize when a job, a life stage, a relationship is over - and to let go. It means leaving what's over without denying its validity or its past importance in our lives.
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