Motherhood

I have been reading The Argonauts by Maggie Nelson. In her layered writing she reveals and proposes many commentaries and realities of motherhood, some well known, others treading new ground. These two quotes reveal just two of her perspectives:

‘D. W. Winnicott: Sometimes mothers find it alarming to think that what they are doing is so important and in that case it is better not to tell them. It makes them self-conscious and then they do everything less well… // As if mothers thought they were performing their ordinary devotions in the wild, then are stunned to look up and see a peanut-crunching crowd across the moat.”

‘You, reader, are alive today, reading this, because someone adequately policed your mouth-exploring … we don’t owe these people (often women, but by no means always) anything. But we do owe ourselves (Winnicott:) an intellectual recognition of the fact that at first we were (psychologically) absolutely dependent, and that absolutely means absolutely. Luckily we were met by ordinary devotion.’ [found by Helen Thomas, written by Maggie Nelson]