Part of the reason images of women in positions of authority are marked by their gender is that the very notion of authority is associated with maleness.

The allure of love is to have someone who knows you so well that you don't have to explain yourself. It is the promise of someone who cares enough about you to protect you against the world of strangers who do not wish you well.

In dialogue, there is opposition, yes, but no head-on collision. Smashing heads does not open minds.

In an ongoing relationship, each current criticism packs the punches of all the others that have gone before.

Each person's life is lived as a series of conversations.

Critiquing relieves you of the responsibility of doing integrative thinking.

When those closest to us respond to events differently than we do, when they seem to see the same scene as part of a different play, when they say things that we could not imagine saying in the same circumstances, the ground on which we stand seems to tremble and our footing is suddenly unsure.