Rating: 
Summary: marvelous exploration of the human condition
Review: Based on its reputation as one of the seminal works of Feminism and a callow belief that the author was merely riding her husband's coattails to fame, this is a book that I have pretty studiously avoided. As it turns out, that was a colossal mistake on my part. This little book contains more interesting and compelling thoughts on the nature of human relationships, particularly the marriage relationship, than just about any other book I've ever read.It's not possible to address them all here, but here are two ideas that I found particularly striking. Here is a passage describing a quality marriage: A good relationship has a pattern like a dance, and is built on some of the same rules. The partners do not need to hold on tightly, because they move confidently in the same pattern, intricate but gay and swift and free, like a country dance of Mozart's. To touch heavily would be to arrest the pattern and freeze the movement, to check the endlessly changing beauty of its unfolding. There is no place here for the possessive clutch, the clinging arm, the heavy hand, only the barest touch is assign. Now arm in arm, now face to face, now back to back - it does not matter which. Because they know they are partners moving to the same rhythm, creating a pattern together, and being invisibly nourished by it. The joy of such a pattern is not only the joy of creation or the joy of participation, it is also the joy of living in the moment. Lightness of touch and living in the moment are intertwined. When you love someone, you do not love them all the time, in exactly the same way, from moment to moment. It is an impossibility. It is even a lie to pretend to. And yet this is exactly what most of us demand. We have so little faith in the ebb and flow of life, of love, of relationships. We leap at the flow of the tide and resist in terror its ebb. We are afraid it will never return. We insist on permanency, on duration, on continuity; when the only continuity possible, in life as in love, is in growth, in fluidity - in freedom, in the sense that the dancers are free, barely touching as they pass, but partners in the same pattern. The only real security is not in owning or possessing, not in demanding or expecting, not in hoping, even. Security in a relationship lies neither in looking back to what was in nostalgia, nor forward to what it might be in dread or anticipation, but living in the present relationship and accepting it as it is now. Relationships must be like islands, one must accept them for what they are here and now, within their limits - islands, surrounded and interrupted by the sea, and continually visited and abandoned by the tides. This image, of a loving couple as partners in a dance, not gripped in a hammer lock, but tracing a unified pattern via different steps, just seems profound to me. We all know people who demand of love that it be unchanging, or demand of a partner that they do things in lockstep; these people are never happy and we immediately recognize their relationships as unhealthy. At the same time, we recognize the good marriages around us as the ones where each partner is confident enough in the other to have faith that their separate paths will remain intertwined and will lead to the same place. The other section that truly brought about a personal epiphany, was when she says: ...marriage, which is always spoken of as a bond, becomes actually, in this stage, many bonds, many strands, of different texture and strength, making up a web that is taut and firm. The web is fashioned of love. Yes, but many kinds of love: romantic love first, then a slow-growing devotion and, playing through these, a constantly rippling companionship. It is made of loyalties, and interdependencies, and shared experiences. It is woven of memories of meetings and conflicts; of triumphs and disappointments. It is a web of communication, a common language, and the acceptance of lack of language, too; a knowledge of likes and dislikes, of habits and reactions, both physical and mental. It is a web of instincts and intuitions, and known and unknown exchanges. The web of marriage is made by propinquity, in the day to day living side by side, looking outward and working outward in the same direction. As I read that, I was reminded of some of the marriages i've never been able to fathom, from my own grandparents to that most analyzed relationship of our day, the Clintons. The notion of the years together creating a web and of reaching a point where you, the couple, are within, looking out in the same direction, seems to me to go a long way to explaining such marriages. Think of how completely the Clintons are entangled within their own unique web, how insular their world must be, and, so long as they do work in the same direction, their relationship at least starts to make a little sense. There is much more here besides. I approached with trepidation, fearing a chick book, and found instead a marvelous exploration of the human condition in general and of the extraordinarily complex nature of marriage in particular. It is a book that anyone will benefit by, especially actual or prospective husbands and wives. GRADE: A+
Rating:
Summary: Fantastic book! She is one super woman!
Review: Couldn't put this book down! Ready to re-read it again. So up-to-date. She has a way with words and expressing so beautifully, the thoughts of so many. Where is she today? What is she doing?
Rating:
Summary: Wonderful!
Review: Elegant and wise meditations on a woman's life: love, family, solitude, peace, contentment. A beautifully written book, and one of my all-time favorites. I always keep an extra copy or two handy to give as gifts.
Rating:
Summary: The perfect gift for Moms
Review: Even though this book was written in the 1950's, it's subject matter is as current and relevant as if it was written yesterday. This is a small, sensible, gem of a book on the often overwhelming and thankless task of being a wife and mother. No, it's not a feminist rant, just a realistic look at what it means to sacrifice yourself for others. This book would make the perfect gift for every mother with young children...trust me.
Rating:
Summary: The perfect gift for Moms
Review: Even though this book was written in the 1950's, it's subject matter is as current and relevant as if it was written yesterday. This is a small, sensible, gem of a book on the often overwhelming and thankless task of being a wife and mother. No, it's not a feminist rant, just a realistic look at what it means to sacrifice yourself for others. This book would make the perfect gift for every mother with young children...trust me.
Rating:
Summary: For a book written more than 40 yrs ago, it is still so rele
Review: For a book written more than 40 yrs ago, it is still so relevant to all women today. This is such a quiet and serene short story, written w/ utmost grace and contemplation. Lindbergh goes to the sea seeking to understand a balance of inner peace and self-fulfillment. She reflects on personal needs in contrast to the obligation of family and work and the solace that can be found in necessary solitude.
Rating:
Summary: Simple Abundance For The Ages........
Review: For anyone -- but most particularly any woman -- in search of self and her place in the world this book, written in 1955, is a must read. It so fully articulates the inner struggles so many women today try to come to grips with-- while at the same time it illustrates that as much as we would like to believe that much of what occurs in our lives is a new occurence, the fact is that there truly is nothing new under the sun, that these struggles just persist from generation to generation.
This diary is so timely throughout that it is at times almost spooky. Hear Lindbergh, for example, conjure up images of the impact of today's Martha Stewart at a time when Martha Stewart was just 14 years old and still a very long way from Lindbergh's consciousness or that of the general public: "Here I live in a bare sea-shell cottage. No heat, no telephone, sweeping and clearning here. I am no longer aware of the dust no plumbing to speak of, no hot water, a two-burner oil stove, no gadgets to go wrong. No rugs. There were some, but I rolled them up the first day; it is easier to sweep the sand off a bare floor. But I find I don't bustle about with unnecessary sweeping and cleaning here. I have shed my Puritan conscience about absolute tidiness and cleanliness. Is it possible that, too, is a material burden? No curtains. I do not need them for privacy; the pines around my house are enough protection. I want the windows open all the time and I don't want to worry about rain. I begin to shed my Martha-like anxiety about many things. Washable slipcovers, faded and old -- I hardly see them; I don't worry about the impression they make on other people. I am shedding pride. As little furniture as possible; I shall not need much. I shall ask into my shell only those friends with whom I can be completely honest." And listen to her speak directly to women of both the 20th and 21st (and probably the 22nd) centuries when she writes: "With a new awareness, both painful and humorous, I begin to understand why the saints were rarely married women. I am convinced it has nothing inherently to do, as I once supposed, with chastity or children. It has to do primarily with distractions. The bearing, rearing, feeding and educating of children; the running of a house with its thousand details; human relationships with their myriad pulls -- woman's normal occupations in counter to creative life, or contemplative life, or saintly life. The problem is not merely one of Woman and Career, Woman and the Home, Woman and Independence. It is more basically: how to remain whole in the midst of the distractions of life; how to remain balance, no matter what centrifugal forces tend to pull one off center; how to remain strong, no matter what shocks come in at the periphery and tend to crack the hub of the wheel"
I can barely in a few quotes pay this book the respect it deserves. Suffice it to say that I highly recommend this book. In fact, I suspect it is going to be my goal in 2002 to put it in the hands of many friends, family members and acquaintances!
Rating:
Summary: A Book for All Seasons
Review: I can only echo those who rave about this book. It is perhaps my all time favorite and that is saying a lot for a bookworm like myself. Her words and wisdom flow like warm honey. She is a wise person. Get this book for yourself and everyone you love. It will be a gift of love to them.
Rating:
Summary: A Book for All Seasons
Review: I can only echo those who rave about this book. It is perhaps my all time favorite and that is saying a lot for a bookworm like myself. Her words and wisdom flow like warm honey. She is a wise person. Get this book for yourself and everyone you love. It will be a gift of love to them.
Rating:
Summary: Unbelievable
Review: I found this book by chance in a hotel giftshop in Seattle. It is an absolute must read for any 30 something woman that is trying to "do it all". Touched my soul and I will need to read it at least a few more times to gain the full benefits. Perfect for gift giving to "girl buddies"!
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