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pondhopThe subject line is from Adrienne Rich's "Night Watch" (1967). I met Rich once, at a dinner hosted by the resident masters of my dormitory; I mainly remember someone asking her how she felt about her son getting married and she responding along the lines of "Why would I have a problem with that?"
I also remember reading Sylvia Plath's diary entries (mentioned in the Independent's obit) and feeling guiltily soothed by her seething jealousy of "Adrienne Cecile Rich"; it was so reassuring to glimpse the great ones wrestling with petty emotions (especially with my then-partner repeatedly deriding my "competitiveness").
One of the pieces I read yesterday at the New York Times site was Frank Bruni's Rethinking His Religion, about a man whom Bruni perceived as very Catholic during their freshman year at UNC who is now a physician and an abortion provider:
I've also been following Rhiannon Laurie's pregnancy logbook. This paragraph from her most recent entry leapt out at me:
On a more cheerful note, Physicians for Reproductive Rights has updated their curriculum for "physicians who want to teach other medical professionals about the best practices for adolescent reproductive and sexual health." And I've met people who speak of my church's sex ed programs (yes, I really did just type those four words in a row) as a lifesaver -- that it truly helped their children make the choices that were right for them during college and beyond.
This entry was originally posted at http://zirconium.dreamwidth.org/10532.html.
I also remember reading Sylvia Plath's diary entries (mentioned in the Independent's obit) and feeling guiltily soothed by her seething jealousy of "Adrienne Cecile Rich"; it was so reassuring to glimpse the great ones wrestling with petty emotions (especially with my then-partner repeatedly deriding my "competitiveness").
One of the pieces I read yesterday at the New York Times site was Frank Bruni's Rethinking His Religion, about a man whom Bruni perceived as very Catholic during their freshman year at UNC who is now a physician and an abortion provider:
He has not raised his young children in any church, or told them that God exists, because he no longer believes that. But he wants them to have the community-minded values and altruism that he indeed credits many religions with fostering. He wants them to be soulful, philosophical.
So he rounded up favorite quotations from Emerson, Thoreau, Confucius, Siddhartha, Gandhi, Marcus Aurelius, Martin Luther King and more. From the New Testament, too. He put each on a strip of paper, then filled a salad bowl with the strips. At dinner he asks his kids to fish one out so they can discuss it.
I've also been following Rhiannon Laurie's pregnancy logbook. This paragraph from her most recent entry leapt out at me:
Never in my life have I considered abortion as an option for me under any circumstance. And it's still definitely not now (at all). But I get it. If this weren't planned and wanted, if I were all alone, if I didn't have the most amazing guy in the world working night and day to take care of me, and if I were this sick. . . I get it.
On a more cheerful note, Physicians for Reproductive Rights has updated their curriculum for "physicians who want to teach other medical professionals about the best practices for adolescent reproductive and sexual health." And I've met people who speak of my church's sex ed programs (yes, I really did just type those four words in a row) as a lifesaver -- that it truly helped their children make the choices that were right for them during college and beyond.
This entry was originally posted at http://zirconium.dreamwidth.org/10532.html.