Selected thoughts from a truly amazing woman: Eleanor Roosevelt

(though I'm sure she'd scold me for calling her that...)

Sometimes I wonder if we shall ever grow up in our politics and say definite things which mean something, or whether we shall always go on using generalities to which everyone can subscribe, and which mean very little.

What you don't do can be a destructive force.

You can never really live anyone else's life, not even your child's. The influence you exert is through your own life, and what you've become yourself.

A little simplification would be the first step toward rational living, I think.

Do what you feel in your heart to be right- for you'll be criticized anyway. You'll be damned if you do, and damned if you don't.

Happiness is not a goal; it is a by-product.

Have convictions. Be friendly. Stick to your beliefs as they stick to theirs. Work as hard as they do.

I can not believe that war is the best solution. No one won the last war, and no one will win the next war.

I have spent many years of my life in opposition, and I rather like the role.

I once had a rose named after me and I was very flattered. But I was not pleased to read the description in the catalogue: no good in a bed, but fine up against a wall.

In all our contacts it is probably the sense of being really needed and wanted which gives us the greatest satisfaction and creates the most lasting bond.

It is not more vacation we need - it is more vocation.

One's philosophy is not best expressed in words; it is expressed in the choices one makes... and the choices we make are ultimately our responsibility.

The Things that Dr. Amy has Taught Me...

Sometime between my first baby and my second, after being present at the accidentally unassisted birth of a beautiful baby named Gavin, I found Dr. Amy Tuteur.

And she makes me so irrationally angry. Posting around her and her followers turns me in a hateful, defiant brat, which ironically, is exactly what she thinks I am.

But I have learned some things from her and her blogs, so here's to Dr. Amy:

1) My OB doesn't really like me. He might listen to my questions with an air of patience, and answer them with kindness, but he feels highly inconvenienced and possibly offended that I even have questions.

2) Should I find myself in a labor that might be progressing too quickly to get the hospital (though how I would be able to recognize and determine this on my own is a mystery), my primary concern should be finding a cab driver who can safely deliver my baby. Another passerby might do, particularly if he's in law enforcement, but cabbies are really the best.

Under no circumstance am I to cease panicking and attempt to take some sort of control of the situation myself, for I am the least qualified person imaginable to interpret the sensations within my body.

Additionally, any urge to push should be dismissed as imaginary and any instinct to alter my position must be suppressed as radical and dangerous. I cannot block the cabbie's access or view. He's a professional.

3) I am not responsible for my own feelings and reactions. I am allowed to interpret the opinions and experiences of others as a direct indictment of myself, a dynamic which those expressing said opinions and experiences are entirely culpable.

So, in other words, I'm allowed to read into anything "you" say (or type), take it personally, and then blame you for it. Cool, huh?

Furthermore, any desires or fears for the management of my pregnancy that I develop, not expressly described by the Standard of Care at my local hospital, are the indisputable result of malevolent and misogynistic brainwashing. I'm not responsible for those either.

4) Lastly, Dr. Amy has taught me that sadly no, my mother really doesn't understand me, and she probably never will.