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e7f7dd5
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One of life's contradictions: how human beings were at once entirely resilient and impossibly fragile. One decision could stay with you forever, and yet you could live through almost anything.
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decisions
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J. Courtney Sullivan |
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f99e011
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With the Smithies, it was different. There was sometimes no telling where one of them began and the others left off.
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sorority
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J. Courtney Sullivan |
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eef8816
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All over the planet women were being tormented, yet if you took sexism seriously, you were a bore, an idiot, or a pain in the ass.
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J. Courtney Sullivan |
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46d6254
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A kid thinks her mother is just that -- . A mother is also a woman, an independent being, who doesn't want to be reminded by anyone, child or otherwise, of her tree-trunk thighs. The world made women's private lives a public affair to people who knew them and even people who didn't.
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J. Courtney Sullivan |
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f626d48
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Bree knew this habit of hers rankled Lara more than any other--her ability to make a decision and announce that there would be no further discussion was, in Lara's opinion, 'Cruel and selfish behavior, the type usually enacted by men with small penises.
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J. Courtney Sullivan |
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0393383
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How could a person have and do all these stupid things--clip coupons and double lock the front door--and then one day just cease to exist?
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existence
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J. Courtney Sullivan |
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db348c7
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April's just a Dixie cup of crazy. Lydia's more like a twenty-gallon tank
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J. Courtney Sullivan |
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a2c5564
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You could sell crack on the street and go to jail for decades. Or you could sell a woman, and be back out by morning.
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J. Courtney Sullivan |
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0d85b22
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The moment a woman was born determined so much of who she was allowed to become.
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women
inequality
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J. Courtney Sullivan |
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510dc46
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even if there was no God there was always the ocean- before you and after you, breathing in and out for all eternity.
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J. Courtney Sullivan |
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a599b95
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What would you have today if you woke up with only the things you thanked God for yesterday?" He wondered"
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J. Courtney Sullivan |
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13da9a2
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She didn't have a single friend on earth to see her off. She had outlived them all.
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J. Courtney Sullivan |
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ce25b81
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But then you were alone, your body trying to heal itself while your mind went numb. There was a mix of joy and the purest love, couples with real boredom and occasional rage. It got easier as the kids got older, but it never got easy.
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J Courtney Sullivan |
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4232306
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Ruby shook her head, but she smiled, a look that said she loved this man, loved the life they had made together. They seemed utterly comfortable with one another, like they knew each other all the way through.
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J Courtney Sullivan |
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e45481d
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It felt something like being in love, but without the weight of having to choose just one heart to hold on to, and without the fear of ever losing it.
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J. Courtney Sullivan |
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6fb3f64
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Sometimes April worried that she'd been built without some fundamental piece that everyone else had that just let them deal. Even her mother, who got involved in every lefty cause she could, seemed to be able to shake it all off at the end of the day and enjoy life. But the evil in the world, everywhere you looked, was always on April's mind.
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J. Courtney Sullivan |
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bedf4b7
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And then there were the things Sally knew her mother would have loved. Those, too, made it easy to imagine how she might come back to life, since nothing good seemed quite real without her there to approve of it.
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J. Courtney Sullivan |
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a07f4c3
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I exist in two places, here and where you are. --MARGARET ATWOOD,
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J. Courtney Sullivan |
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08d9a93
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It wasn't right that you could only understand your parents' pain once you'd experienced the things they had, and by then they were gone.
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pain
life-lessons
wisdom
maturity
growing-up
parenting
knowledge
parenthood
old-age
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J. Courtney Sullivan |
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afc1769
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You want your kids to do better than you did," he said. "That's what the American Dream is all about. But it's hard when they outgrow you. It hurts like hell."
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J. Courtney Sullivan |
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12e50d5
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This was a bargain she struck, a ritual to guarantee safety. Nothing truly bad could happen if she was expecting it.
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J. Courtney Sullivan |
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3df589f
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Maggie wondered if in some ways all the complaining only made matters worse.
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J Courtney Sullivan |
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51fe3e5
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Nothing had just happened to her, she had made a choice, and then she had made another and another after that. Taken together, the small choices anyone made added up to a life.
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choice
life-lessons
life
wisdom
big-picture
choices-and-consequences
maturation
decisions
choices
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J. Courtney Sullivan |
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b91696c
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Her mother... told Kate that after women got out of lousy marriages, they generally had the good sense to stay away from the institution altogether. While men just kept trying to get it right because they were incapable of being alone.
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J. Courtney Sullivan |
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53de50a
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This was how the modern working girl behaved. She didn't hide her femininity or apologize for it, as they did in the old days. She flaunted it and, having been given more than any woman before her, demanded even more than that.
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J. Courtney Sullivan |
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1dd193d
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She had learned over time that to know anything was bearable. It was secrecy that could not be borne.
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learning
secrets
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J. Courtney Sullivan |
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02cfacf
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Motherhood was a physical act as much as an emotional one. It took every part of you.
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J. Courtney Sullivan |
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d13a910
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It was amazing that you did not become your grief entirely, and walk about leaking it everywhere.
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J. Courtney Sullivan |
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233a9e8
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Old age had distilled her down to her essence.
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humanity
life-lessons
life
wisdom
essence
elderly
old-people
womanhood
old-age
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J. Courtney Sullivan |
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c09e696
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Beyond those was a stretch of sand and miles of dark blue sea. You couldn't make out a thing on the other side. As a little girl, Maggie believed that the world dropped off out there, that if you swam far enough you might fall into a starry sky.
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J. Courtney Sullivan |
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b87b67e
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The dogs were partly responsible for keeping her sane. The relationship she had with them was pure joy. No ulterior motives, no spite, just love and care and kindness, exactly the emotions she wanted to cultivate.
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J. Courtney Sullivan |
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15f6a7f
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He also believed that loyalty was earned - sharing a bloodline didn't mean you had to be close.
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J. Courtney Sullivan |
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0638bf2
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It's a common enough mistake to believe that one's own time is the most progressive, the most advanced. That human nature only improves upon itself. But in fact, things move in cycles--good to bad and back again.
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J. Courtney Sullivan |
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f6ca69f
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Think of a marriage, husband and wife. The piece of paper, the white wedding dress, they don't promise anything. A person has to stay there, fight for it, every day.
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J. Courtney Sullivan |
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5e6bdc7
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It was so nice to be on the cusp of parenthood, to be able to judge other people's choices with confidence, not yet having made any mistakes of their own.
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J. Courtney Sullivan |
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7397691
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She could come up with a hundred reasons why now wasn't the time, why home was not a place one went for a visit.
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J. Courtney Sullivan |
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f708981
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Gilot
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J. Courtney Sullivan |
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9fc25fa
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I'm afraid your grandmother's Irish Alzheimer's has gotten quite advanced--she's forgotten everything but her grudges.
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J. Courtney Sullivan |
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3ea4e1a
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Now she saw that marriage was like being in a three-legged race with the same person for the rest of your life. Your hopes, your happiness, your luck, your moods, all yoked to his.
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J. Courtney Sullivan |
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118c3a6
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Someone could save your life without you ever knowing it. It happened more than most people realized.
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save-your-life
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J. Courtney Sullivan |
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6c08dd9
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The things she worried about on a daily basis included but were not limited to: Children starving in Africa. Chemicals in her daughter's food and drinking water. Corruption in Washington, everywhere you looked. The poor, who no one even talked about anymore. Rape in the Congo, which didn't seem to be going away, despite so much talk. Rape at elite American colleges, which wasn't going away either. Plastic. Oil in the Gulf. Beer commercials,..
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J. Courtney Sullivan |
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1fce21b
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It was so bitter and sad, looking for safety in the person least likely to give it to you. Like drinking salt water, she thought. The house felt eerily quiet.
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J. Courtney Sullivan |
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afb0050
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Each of Nora's children had arrived on this earth as him or herself, the more she knew them, the more she felt it to be true. They were so different from one another, and from her.
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motherhood
personality
individuality
growing-up
parenting
parents
mother
parenthood
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J. Courtney Sullivan |
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a55340c
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But when you envision the perfect flowers and the perfect food and the perfect outdoor space and the perfect weather, you forget that you can't rent the perfect family to go along with it. You're stuck with shitty old one you've already got.
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J. Courtney Sullivan |