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The central struggle of parenthood is to let our hopes for our children outweigh our fears.

Ellen Goodman

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Ellen Goodman
Age: 83
Born: 1941
Born: April 11
Journalist
Newton
Massachusetts
Adoption
Parenthood
Hopes
Central
Fears
Struggle
Inspirational
Children
Outweigh

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In today's amphetamine world of news junkies, speed trumps thoughtfulness too often.
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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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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?
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In journalism, there has always been a tension between getting it first and getting it right.
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Civility, it is said, means obeying the unenforceable.
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I regard this novel as a work without redeeming social value, unless it can be recycled as a cardboard box.
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Saving time, it seems, has a primacy that's too rarely examined.
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Ultimately, time is all you have and the idea isn't to save it, but to savour it.
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Taboos are falling across our culture like dominoes. What was unspeakable yesterday dominates talk shows today.
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Parents remain our touchstones, fellow travelers, even after death. They are both missing and present.
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People have been writing premature obituaries on the women's movement since its beginning.
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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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