Our spirits are corroded by living in an atmosphere of unrelenting contention - an argument culture.
Interpretation
Constant argumentation can negatively affect our spirits and well-being.
Deborah Tannen highlights how an environment filled with continuous conflict and contention can diminish our inner peace and vitality. Living in such a culture not only breeds stress but also deteriorates our ability to engage constructively with others, ultimately corroding our spirits.
In practice
In a speech on workplace dynamics, one might use this quote to highlight the detrimental effects of constant arguments.
Women as mothers grapple with corresponding contradictions. The adoration they feel for their grown daughters, mixed with the sense of responsibility for their well-being, can be overwhelming, matched only by the hurt they feel when their attempts to help or just stay connected are rebuffed or even excoriated as criticism or devilish interference.
Sister relationships span a huge range, from best friends to worst enemies. From 'I adore her; I talk to her five times a day' to 'I decided to cut her out of my life.' For most women, it's in between.
The trickiest thing about the double bind is that it operates imperceptibly, like shots from a gun with a silencer.
For most women, the language of conversation is primarily a language of rapport: a way of establishing connections and negotiating relationships.
Mothers and daughters find in each other the source of great comfort but also of great pain. We talk to each other in better and worse ways than we talk to anyone else.
Treating people the same is not equal treatment if they are not the same.
I am baffled by the way sophisticated theologians who know Adam and Eve never existed still keep talking about it.
This deep agnosticism is more than the refusal of conventional agnosticism to take a stand on whether God exists or whether the mind survives bodily death. It is the willingness to embrace the fundamental bewilderment of a finite, fallible creature as the basis for leading a life that no longer clings to the superficial consolations of certainty.
Truth is always the enemy of power. And power the enemy of truth.
The cities swept about me like dead leaves, leaves that were brightly colored but torn away from the branches. I would have stopped, but I was pursued by something. It always came upon me unawares, taking me altogether by surprise. Perhaps it was a familiar bit of music. Perhaps it was only a piece of transparent glass.
You are an infinite spiritual being having a temporary human experience.
So each had a private little sun for her soul to bask in; some dream, some affection, some hobby, or at least some remote and distant hope.
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