Sunday, January 18, 2015

Recent (non-book) reading

Some good articles that I've come across recently:
  • I loved this piece in the New York Times about "Getting grief right."  There was some backlash in the comments over the author's contention that "the size of their grief corresponds to the depth of their love."  I don't necessarily believe that people who grieve less didn't love as much (or vice versa)... I prefer the statement earlier in the piece that "The depth of her sadness was simply a measure of the love she had for her daughter." -- i.e., the fact that we grieve is because we loved the one(s) we have lost.  I also love the Isak Dinesen quote near the end of the story:  “All sorrows can be borne if you put them in a story or tell a story about them.” Isn't that what we're doing when we blog? 
  • Amy Klein (who wrote a regular Fertility Diary for the NYT's Motherlode blog awhile back) examines "Fertility fog" and the average woman's woeful ignorance about her own fertility.  I found Amy's article via Andrew Sullivan's blog The Dish, which has been publishing follow-up comments from readers over the past few days. The entire thread, including the readers' comments, can be viewed here. (The Dish is a subscription site, but you can read a limited number of articles for free before you will be asked to pay up to see more.) 
  • The cover story in this week's Sunday New York Times Magazine featured Korean adoptees who are returning to the country of their birth in search of their identity and culture, if not their birth families. This may be a difficult article for adoptive parents & those considering adoption to read -- and there are no doubt many adoptees who have different points of view -- but I think it's important for us to listen and learn from their stories.  
  • Pamela at Silent Sorority recently wrote a piece for Medium, asking "When does the pursuit of pregnancy go too far?" in which she raises some important questions about some very complex issues.
  • The headline of this Purple Clover piece made me laugh (and the rest of the story is pretty good too):  "Alien Woman Has No Kids:  Why I always feel like a Martian when presented with one simple question." The author is childfree by choice, but I'm willing to bet there a lot of us can relate, particularly to the reactions she gets from parents.  
  • Telling stories -- our stories -- matters, as argued in "The power of story." 

1 comment:

  1. Good list. Thanks for pointing out the ones I hadn't seen.

    I liked the Fertility Fog article, and the follow-ups (the ones I could read without a subscription). I certainly wish my GP had talked to me in my early 20s when I first saw her. I wasn't planning on starting a family then, but having been forewarned would have been very useful.

    Pamela aced it as usual, and yes, at times I've felt (and even written this at least one time) like an alien! The Korean adoptees story is very interesting, as I've often thought about their (and other international adoptees) place in the world - along with that of donor egg/sperm children.

    The grief article (and comments) are very interesting. I certainly support the end of the article where they talk about the value of support groups and writing (as you noted).

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