I come from a family where the only emotion respectable to show is irritation. In some this tendency produces hives, in others literature, in me both.
Interpretation
The quote reflects on how a family environment can shape emotional expression, often leading to complex coping mechanisms.
Flannery O'Connor's quote illustrates the impact of familial expectations on emotional expression. In her family, expressing irritation was seen as the only acceptable emotion, which can lead to various personal reactions. For her, this duality manifests in physical symptoms like hives, as well as creative expression through literature—a way to process and cope with restricted emotions.
In practice
This quote can be used during a family therapy session to illustrate how family dynamics affect emotional health.
Let me make no bones about it: I write from the standpoint of Christian orthodoxy. Nothing is more repulsive to me than the idea of myself setting up a little universe of my own choosing and propounding a little immoralistic message. I write with a solid belief in all the Christian dogmas.
What people don’t realize is how much religion costs. They think faith is a big electric blanket, when of course it is the cross.
If you live today, you breath in nihilism ... it's the gas you breathe. If I hadn't had the Church to fight it with or to tell me the necessity of fighting it, I would be the stinkingest logical positivist you ever saw right now.
There won't be any biographies of me because, for only one reason, lives spent between the house and the chicken yard do not make exciting copy.
Knowing who you are is good for one generation only. You haven't the foggiest idea where you stand now or who you are
He loved her because it was his nature to do so, but there were times when he could not endure her love for him. There were times when it became nothing but pure idiot mystery.
It's interesting that I had such a close relationship with my grandfather. Because your parents always judge you: they say, 'You shouldn't do this, you shouldn't do that.' But with your grandparents you have a feeling that you can say anything or you can do anything, and they will support you. That's why you have this kind of connection.
Our favorite teams bring people together, keep family members close, bond people from different generations. Some of the happiest moments of my life involve something that happened with one of my teams. Some of the best relationships I ever had were with Boston athletes that I never even met.
I'm not a great man to my children. I'm just 'Pop.' The more involved I am with my kids, it keeps my head flat on top.
A grandmother's special calling is to pray and to be a fellow worker in the battle in which her children or her grandchildren are engaged.
I take my kids to school and if I go to work they visit me on set, I come home. I have dinner with my family. I have breakfast with my family. I have a very solid, a very warm home. I'm fortunate.
There is no experience like having children...If you want the experience of having complete responsibility for another human being, and to learn to love and bond in the deepest way, then you should have children.
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