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Creativity is a crushing chore and a glorious mystery. The work wants to be made, and it wants to be made through you.

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Psychologists suggest that we must reach back at least three generations to look for clues whenever we begin untangling the emotional legacy of any on...more

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The philosopher Odo Marquard has noted a correlation in the German language between the word zwei, which means 'two,' and the word zweifel, which mean...more

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There was no better path to autonomy for an ambitious young businesswoman than to be married off to a respectable corpse.

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I was struck - not for the first time in my years of travel - by how isolating contemporary American society can seem by comparison. Where I came from...more

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I also get that we women in particular must work very hard to keep our fantasies as clearly and cleanly delineated from our realities as possible, and...more

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ceremony is essential to humans: It's a circle that we draw around important events to separate the momentous from the ordinary. And ritual is a sort ...more

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Now that young girls like my twelve-year-old friend Mai are being exposed to modern Western women like me through crowds of tourists, they're experien...more

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All too often, those of us who choose to remain childless are accused of being somehow unwomanly or unnatural or selfish, but history teaches us that ...more

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The only thing more unthinkable than leaving was staying the only thing more impossible than stayin the only thing more impossible than staying was le...more

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I filled the song with everything I wished I could teach him about life. I tried to reassure him with every line about how the world is hard and unfai...more

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You have no idea how strong my love is!

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How many people have I heard claim their children as the greatest accomplishment and comfort of their lives? It's the thing they can always lean on du...more

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Zen masters say you cannot see your reflection in running water, only in still water.

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Is this lifetime supposed to be only about duty?