Quote of the Day

Kindness and compassion are sisters but not twins.  One you can buy, the other is priceless.

-- Janet Mock, Redefining Realness, p. 207

Quote of the Day

It doesn't matter if the group is a church or a gang or a sewing circle or masculinity itself, asking members to dislike, disown, or distance themselves from another group of people as a condition of "belonging" is always about control and power.  I think we have to question the intentions of any group that insists on disdain toward other people as a membership requirement.  It may be disguised as belonging, but real belonging doesn't necessitate disdain.

-- Brene Brown, Daring Greatly, p. 108

Quote of the Day

Do not judge yourself harshly.  Without mercy for ourselves we cannot love the world.

-- Jack Kornfield, Buddha's Little Instruction Book, p. 107

Quote of the Day

Some things are worth cherishing precisely because they are finite.
 
-- Andrew Sullivan, "A Note To My Readers"

Quote of the Day

So here we go, you and me.  Because what else are we going to do?  Say no?  Say no to an opportunity that may be slightly out of our comfort zone?  Quiet our voice because we are worried it is not perfect?  I believe great people do things before they are ready.  

-- Amy Poehler, Yes Please, p. xv

Quote of the Day

Emotional blackmailers encourage us to take global responsibility for their complaints and unhappiness, doing all they can to reprogram the basic and necessary mechanisms of appropriate guilt into an undeserved-guilt production line where the lights continually flash guilty, guilty, guilty.

-- Susan Forward with Donna Frazier, Emotional Blackmail, p. 54

Quote of the Day

Sometimes people try to destroy you, precisely because they recognize your power -- not because they don't see it, but because they see it and they don't want it to exist.

-- bell hooks

Quote of the Day

I also stopped reading anonymous comments.  If you're not in the arena with the rest of us, fighting and getting your ass kicked on occasion, I'm not interested in your feedback.

-- Brene Brown, Daring Greatly, p. 91

Quote of the Day

Generosity brings joy; honesty brings peace.

-- Jack Kornfield, Buddha's Little Instruction Book, p. 106

Quote of the Day

Listen, selfishly, what people need to understand is that equality for one group of people is not just about that group, it is about you as well. When one group of people is singled out and treated different for who they are, who is to say that the group you belong to won’t be next in line? History is a testament to that fact as well. If one of us not equal, none of us is equal.

-- Cyndi Lauper, "An interview with Cyndi Lauper"

Quote of the Day

I am saturated in digital life and I want to return to the actual world again.  I'm a human being before I am a writer; and a writer before I am a blogger, and although it's been a joy and a privilege to have helped pioneer a genuinely new form of writing, I yearn for other, older forms.  I want to read again, slowly, carefully.  I want to absorb a difficult book and walk around in my own thoughts with it for a while.  I want to have an idea and let it slowly take shape, rather than be instantly blogged.  I want to write long essays that can answer more deeply and subtly the many questions that the Dish years have presented to me.  I want to write a book.

-- Andrew Sullivan, "A Note To My Readers"

Quote of the Day

You write and then cook something and write some more.  You put your hand on your heart and feel it beating and decide if what you wrote feels true.  You do it because the doing of it is the thing.  The doing is the thing.  The talking and worrying and thinking is not the thing.  That is what I know.  Writing the book is about writing the book.

-- Amy Poehler, Yes Please, p. xv

Quote of the Day

When we receive a kindness from a blackmailer, it's not soon forgotten.  More like an open-ended loan than a gift, it's always got payments attached -- with interest -- and we can never seem to get out of the red.  The emphasis is on the blackmailer's sacrifices, made not with an open heart but with the intention of scoring points, accumulating markers that can be called in.

-- Susan Forward with Donna Frazier, Emotional Blackmail, p. 51

Quote of the Day

If I didn't define myself for myself, I would be crunched into other people's fantasies for me and eaten alive.

-- Audre Lorde

Quote of the Day

Even to me the issue of "stay small, sweet, quiet, and modest" sounds like an outdated problem, but the truth is that women still run into those demands whenever we find and use our voices.  

-- Brene Brown, Daring Greatly, p. 89

Quote of the Day

The greatest protection is a loving heart.  Protecting yourself, you protect others.  Protecting others, you protect yourself.

-- Jack Kornfield, Buddha's Little Instruction Book, p. 105

Quote of the Day

I grew up in the era of the Civil Rights and Women’s Rights Movements.  I saw the power of white people marching with African American people, and of men marching with women. When the majority steps up and sides with the minority, great change can happen. So, as a straight person, with great pride, I take my responsibility seriously to stand arm-in-arm with my [LGBT] family, friends, and fans, and the community as a whole.

-- Cyndi Lauper, "An interview with Cyndi Lauper"

Quote of the Day

Any time you think you know what your new business will be doing, remember this quote from Steve Blank: No plan survives first contact with customers.

-- Derek Sivers, Anything You Want, p. 13

Quote of the Day

Books are made out of books.

-- Cormac McCarthy

Quote of the Day

When our sense of obligation is stronger than our sense of self-respect and self-caring, blackmailers quickly learn how to take advantage.

-- Susan Forward with Donna Frazier, Emotional Blackmail, p. 51

Quote of the Day

Self-definition and self-determination is about the many varied decisions that we make to compose and journey toward ourselves, about the audacity and strength to proclaim, create, and evolve into who we know ourselves to be.  It's okay if your personal definition is in a constant state of flux as you navigate the world.

-- Janet Mock, Redefining Realness, p. 172

Quote of the Day

When I think of my own efforts to be everything to everyone -- something that women are socialized to do -- I can see how every move I make just ensnares me even more.  Every effort to twist my way out of the web just leads to becoming more stuck.  That's because every choice has consequences or leads to someone being disappointed.

-- Brene Brown, Daring Greatly, p. 88

Quote of the Day

Simplicity brings more happiness than complexity.

-- Jack Kornfield, Buddha's Little Instruction Book, p. 104