It is the suffering of ambivalence: the murderous alternation between bitter resentment and raw-edged nerves, and blissful gratification and tenderness
Interpretation
The quote depicts the emotional turmoil of feeling both intense pain and deep joy simultaneously.
Adrienne Rich highlights the complex nature of human emotions, suggesting that individuals often oscillate between feelings of pain, resentment, and vulnerability, alongside experiences of joy, tenderness, and fulfillment. This duality reflects the inherent ambivalence in relationships and personal experiences, where one can feel intense suffering and yet find moments of blissful gratification, emphasizing the intricate tapestry of human existence.
In practice
In a talk about emotional intelligence, one might use this quote to illustrate the complexity of human feelings.
My children cause me the most exquisite suffering of which I have any experience. It is the suffering of ambivalence: the murderous alternation between bitter resentment and raw-edged nerves, and blissful gratification and tenderness. Sometimes I seem to myself, in my feelings toward these tiny guiltless beings, a monster of selfishness and intolerance.
The word revolution itself has become not only a dead relic of Leftism, but a key to the deadendedness of male politics: the revolution of a wheel which returns in the end to the same place; the revolving door of a politics which has liberated women only to use them, and only within the limits of male tolerance.
A president cannot meaningfully honor certain token artists while the people at large are so dishonored.'β
There is no 'the truth','a truth' - truth is not one thing, or even a system. It is an increasing complexity. the pattern of the carpet is a surface. When we look closely, or when we become weavers, we learn of the tiny multiple threads unseen in the overall pattern, the knots on the underside of the carpet
It's as if, in the mother's eyes, her smile, her stroking touch, the child first reads the message:'You are there!'
Pride is a tricky, glorious, double-edged feeling.
A society needs famous people; the question is whom it chooses for that role. Any criticism of its choice is by implication a criticism of that society.
Even if these stories are 3,000 years old, there's still so much about the characters, about the dilemmas, about their understanding of the universe that still resonates. The whole idea of order and chaos, which is really central to the ancient Egyptian understanding of the world, is still very much with us.
Your mind is the knife that cuts the continuum of space and time into neat slices of linear experience.
Joy, rather than happiness, is the goal of life, for joy is the emotion which accompanies our fulfilling our natures as human beings. It is based on the experience of one's identity as a being of worth and dignity.
Atheism is indeed the most daring of all dogmas . . . for it is the assertion of a universal negative.
The best interpreter of the law is custom.
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