My best friend is a voracious reader with a broad range of tastes so I asked to borrow some books. Isaac and I often spend the afternoon reading and I will read aloud to him whatever novel I am currently engrossed in. I have re-read most of my own books and I am notoriously late at returning library books, so I am pillaging friends’ book cases. My friend is a forensic psychologist so she is interested in the fragility of the mind and human experience. As such, she has a number of books recounting tales of childhood abuse or about people that just aren’t quite right. Another side effect of motherhood I had not expected is the overwhelming emotion that accompanies seeing or hearing about children being hurt. As I flicked through her library my friend would take a book off me – “Not that one – that’s about a kid who was abused by his Dad and can’t break the cycle of abuse as an adult.” “Hmmm, a child is murdered in that one ... sorry”. “Nope, that one is just disturbing.” In the end I borrowed some inoffensive Pauline Simmonds as well as a few mysteries.
It is strange how we start self –censoring as mothers. Normally Angelina Jolie in a starring role would be enough to entice me to a movie, but I have no interest in seeing Changeling – a story about a child who goes missing and then is replaced at a later date by a different child but no one believes the mother that this isn’t her baby. On the flip side, adverts for Huggies or even toilet paper with that cute little puppy have my heart bursting with affection.
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Korin Japanese Trading Corporation.
9 years ago
2 comments:
I can completely relate to this but from a more whiskery perspective :) In fact, I think it's why I became a vegetarian.
As you know, I always had lots of childhood pets but Jasmin was different - she was such a beautiful little kitten and I always thought of her as my little girl. At six months old (just after Christmas) she began yowling like an alley cat and it was time to get her fixed. Seeing her stitches afterwards just broke my heart and suddenly I became very sensitive to all kinds of animal suffering. By New Year, I had made a resolution to become vegetarian ... and that was just over ten years ago now!
Perhaps it seems like a strange comparison to make but I think when someone very special comes into your life you not only feel an intense need to protect them but you also want to protect everyone who reminds you of them or shares their vunerability.
Btw, have you read Holy Cow by Sarah MacDonald ? (I love that book - very spiritual but also hilarious :) I have a spare copy I can send you ...
Hi
I haven't read it but have heard good things.
I agree that when someone enters your heart so completely, your perspective on so many other things changes.
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