… our sons must become men – such men as we hope our daughters, born and unborn, will be pleased to live among. Our sons will not grow into women. Their way is more difficult than that of our daughters, for they must move away from us, without us. Hopefully ours have what they have learned from us, and a howness to forge into their own image.
Interpretation
The quote emphasizes the unique challenges that sons face as they grow into men, highlighting the hopes parents have for their sons and daughters in their future relationships.
Audre Lorde reflects on the transition from boyhood to manhood, suggesting that while daughters will develop within the influences of family, sons must navigate the world independently. The quote underscores the importance of parenting in shaping the character of sons, with a focus on encouraging them to develop their individuality while carrying forward the lessons learned from their upbringing.
In practice
In a parenting seminar discussing the challenges of raising boys.
The fact that we are here and that I speak these words is an attempt to break that silence and bridge some of those differences between us, for it is not difference which immobilizes us, but silence. And there are so many silences to be broken.
There is no thing as a single-issue struggle because we do not live single-issue lives.
There are no new ideas. There are only new ways of making them felt.
I am not free while any woman is unfree, even when her shackles are very different from my own.
I am deliberate and afraid of nothing.
There's always someone asking you to underline one piece of yourself - whether it's Black, woman, mother, dyke, teacher, etc. - because that's the piece that they need to key in to. They want to dismiss everything else.
Every time a woman makes herself laugh at her husband's often-told jokes she betrays him. The man who looks at his woman and says 'What would I do without you?' is already destroyed.
Honesty, disinterestedness and good nature are indispensable to procure the esteem and confidence of those with whom we live, and on whose esteem our happiness depends.
It is normal for husband and wife to argue: it's normal. It always happens. But my advice is this: never let the day end without having first made peace. Never!
What anger worse or slower to abate then lovers love when it turns to hate.
So think long and hard about who you're spending the most time with, for wherever they are headed, so are you.
Everywhere, we learn only from those whom we love.
Subscribe for the occasional hand-picked quote. No noise.