Ariel Gore

I've been thinking about disowning some of my genes lately. I have a few healthy, happy, long-living optimists in my family tree - most of them fans of Christian Science founder Mary Baker Eddy, a major champion of positive thinking. But I've got plenty of ancestors who played out more tortured hands. ”

I think there are different kinds of happiness. We know when we're happy a lot of the time, but then there are those moments that have more of an afterglow, when the happiness has more depth. ”

When I was a kid, my mother's parenting style teetered between benign neglect and intense bouts of violence. ”

Some caregivers want to reciprocate the care they themselves received as children. ”

They say change gets more difficult as we get older - each year we're more stuck in our ways, more reluctant to learn something new. ”

In our cultural history, all emotions have been more culturally acceptable to women. ”

I'm sure there were plenty of loving, attentive mothers in the 'me generation,' but none of them lived at my house. ”