When any relationship is characterized by difference, particularly a disparity in power, there remains a tendency to model it on the parent-child-relationship. Even protectiveness and benevolence toward the poor, toward minorities, and especially toward women have involved equating them with children.

Fluidity and discontinuity are central to the reality in which we live.

The timing of death, like the ending of a story, gives a changed meaning to what preceded it.

We are not what we know but what we are willing to learn.

What would it be like to have not only color vision but culture vision, the ability to see the multiple worlds of others.

Of any stopping place in life, it is good to ask whether it will be a good place from which to go on as well as a good place to remain.

I had repeatedly accepted inappropriate burdens, stepping in to do what needed to be done. In retrospect, I think I carried them well, but the cost was that I was chronically overloaded, weary, and short of time for politicking, smoothing ruffled feathers, and simply resting.