Meanwhile, speaking of policy, of which Trump has none, J.D.
-
William Lindsey :toad:replied to Karen Strickholm last edited by
@KarenStrickholm @lolonurse Yes, a way of thinking and talking about the world that has deep roots in many cultures. From the Greeks and Romans to Shakespeare and beyond, people have seen great significance in what's written in the stars. Thomas Moore does a good job of summing this up in his classic book Care of the Soul.
-
William Lindsey :toad:replied to Karen Strickholm last edited by
@KarenStrickholm @lolonurse I'm sure that could have been an underlying motivation. I think the most significant motivation was to carry on pre-scientific teachings about human reproduction that Thomas Aquinas imported from Aristotle, and which then became the basis of official Catholic teaching about human sexuality — teaching now rightly rejected by a majority of Catholics in many parts of the world.
-
William Lindsey :toad:replied to lolonurse last edited by
@lolonurse @KarenStrickholm Ah, the days when we could celebrate hair because we had it! Well, I speak for myself….
-
Christo. London, Englandreplied to William Lindsey :toad: last edited by
@wdlindsy @KarenStrickholm @lolonurse
Excuse me for butting in but in living memory the Rwanda Hutu massacre of Tutsi is a horrific example and yet they now live along one another again. -
lolonursereplied to William Lindsey :toad: last edited by
@wdlindsy @KarenStrickholm
Mythology & folklore all around the world seem to have common threads, even as they seem to differ. -
lolonursereplied to William Lindsey :toad: last edited by
@wdlindsy @KarenStrickholm
Early in my career, I worked with a very lovely, sweet woman who was a devout Catholic. She had 11 children. She was so cheerful, kind & upbeat. She really took each child as a blessing. And her husband was just as lovely. -
William Lindsey :toad:replied to lolonurse last edited by
@lolonurse @KarenStrickholm I'm sure that's how my spouse's parents looked at their eight children — as gifts from God. His brother who is 7th of the 8 children tells us that he always felt, growing up, that by the time he was born, the parents were emotionally exhausted and had little to offer beyond food and shelter — and that they thought their job didn't extend to providing emotional support to their children. I suspect that may often happen with large families.
-
William Lindsey :toad:replied to lolonurse last edited by
@lolonurse @KarenStrickholm Yes — harking back, I think, to days when "primitive" people looked at the sky and wondered what mysteries it was disclosing to them.
-
William Lindsey :toad:replied to Christo. London last edited by
@Christo_459 @KarenStrickholm @lolonurse Yes, I don't think I'll ever get the scenes of "Hotel Rwanda" out of my head.
-
lolonursereplied to William Lindsey :toad: last edited by
@wdlindsy @KarenStrickholm
Plus, by that point, the older girls were expected to help their mothers. My M-i-L was one of 12. When she finished 9th grade, her father said that was enough schooling for a girl, pulled her so she could help her mom care for the younger ones. -
Karen Strickholmreplied to William Lindsey :toad: last edited by
@wdlindsy @lolonurse Oh I firgot about that book! For me, the question "Is it real" is irrelevant. What matters to me is "Is it useful."
-
Karen Strickholmreplied to William Lindsey :toad: last edited by
@wdlindsy @lolonurse It's ciunterintuitive but nothing can feel lonlier perhaps, than being a member of a large family
-
William Lindsey :toad:replied to Karen Strickholm last edited by
@KarenStrickholm @lolonurse Yes, the truths that shape our lives have always included powerful stories — fictions — that we know are not real in a scientific, empirical sense, but are nonetheless real at profound levels.
-
William Lindsey :toad:replied to Karen Strickholm last edited by
@KarenStrickholm @lolonurse That makes sense to me. I had only two siblings so don't know from experience, but it's something my spouse's brother who is next to last among the children talks about quite a bit — the lack of emotional connection, stemming from his parents' inability to see that their children needed emotional reinforcement.
-
William Lindsey :toad:replied to lolonurse last edited by
@lolonurse @KarenStrickholm Yes, absolutely. I think when families were huge, the older daughters often ended up raising their younger siblings, because the mother was too busy (and worn out) trying to provide care for the whole brood while running the household — and, on a farm, maintaining the garden, milking the cows, cooking, preserving food, sewing, bringing water from the well, minding the chickens and gathering their eggs, nursing the sick, and on and on.
-
Karen Strickholmreplied to William Lindsey :toad: last edited by
@wdlindsy @lolonurse Being female has been no picnic! My Estonian grandma came over as a toddler with family of 6 girls, 5 boys under Canadian homesteading act. Boys died on the crossing of German Measles. They landed and set out with girls for their designated patch in Alberta, near Medicine Hat, where they built a two room log cabin, cleared land. There were other Estonian families nearby, and they helped each other out. Greatgrandpa was a miller too. His millstone is now part of a monument.
-
William Lindsey :toad:replied to Karen Strickholm last edited by
@KarenStrickholm @lolonurse How wonderful that your g-grandfather's millstone is now included in a monument. It's almost impossible to imagine what women often endured as their families emigraated to an entirely different place and set up a new life there. The story of your grandmother's Estonian family is incredible and heroic.