“We search the world for truth; we cull The good, the pure, the beautiful, From all old flower fields of the soul; And, weary seeker of the best, We come back laden from out quest, To find that all the sages said Is in the Book our mothers read.” WorldSaidBookSoulBeautifulMotherFieldsFlowerPureQuestsWearySageSeekers Book:The complete poetical works of John Greenleaf Whittier Source: The complete poetical works of John Greenleaf Whittier
“On the first of May, with my comrades of the catechism class, I laid lilac, chamomile and rose before the altar of the Virgin, and returned full of pride to show my blessed posy. My mother laughed her irreverent laugh and, looking at my bunch of flowers, which was bringing the may-bug into the sitting-room right under the lamp, she said: Do you suppose it wasn't already blessed before?” FirstsMaySaidShowsSpiritMotherReligionSpiritualityRoomsClassLaughingFlowerPrideSittingBlessedRoseBunchLaughedGardeningVirginsBugsLampsAltarsComradeLilacIrreverentCatechismPosies Author:Sidonie Gabrielle Colette
“For every nineteenth-century middle-class family that protected its wife and child within the family circle, there was an Irish ora German girl scrubbing floors in that home, a Welsh boy mining coal to keep the home-baked goodies warm, a black girl doing the family laundry, a black mother and child picking cotton to be made into clothes for the family, and a Jewish or an Italian daughter in a sweatshop making "ladies" dresses or artificial flowers for the family to purchase.” ChildrenMadeHomeMotherGirlBlackClassBoysWifeMiddleCenturyFlowerClothesDaughterDressesWarmCirclesMiddle ClassItalianArtificialProtectedCoalNineteenth CenturyCottonLaundryMiningWelshMother And ChildBlack GirlMiddle Class FamilySweatshopsArtificial Flowers Author:Stephanie Coontz
“Navajo infants get so attached to cradleboard that they cry to be tied into it. Kikuyu infants in Kenya get handed around several"mothers," all wives to one man. . . . Mothers in rural Guatemala keep their infants quiet, in dark huts. Middle-class American mothers talk a blue streak at them. Israeli kibbutz mothers give them over to a communal caretaker . . . Japanese mothers sleep with them. . . . All these tactics are compatible with normal health--physical and mental--and development in infancy. So one lesson for parents so far seems to be: Let a hundred flowers bloom.” MenGivingSeemsMotherParentDarkSleepClassWifeMiddleCryFlowerDevelopmentLessonsQuietNormalHundredBlueMiddle ClassOne ManTiedInfantTacticsIsraeliInfancyKenyaCompatibleStreaksHutsBlooming FlowerCaretakersGuatemalaNew Parents Author:Melvin Konner