dry grass singing

out of the mouths of babes

Gems of wisdom from student essays:


"When people marry, they expect care, tension, and unconditioned love."

An odd mixture of cynicism and idealism, this. Too many cares will result in tension, certainly - but to also expect, in the face of this rather grim certainty, love that emanates, pure and unconditioned by social mores or gender expectations... Well, all i can say to the writer of the essay from which this was taken is, "Good luck."


"Men are women."

Clearly a comment on the gender-role confusion that plagues postmodern post-feminist society. It must be tough being a man these days - we women send a dozen (and then some!) conflicting signals about what it means to be a man, and somehow they have to keep it all together, without going postal.

Perhaps Chaucer and his fellow medievalists were right after all - the answer to the question "What do women want?" must be: "Power". Power to mould men to our every whim and fancy, power to make them who and what we want them to be - men when we want to take a backseat and be pampered and taken care of, and women when we want to feel in charge.

i'm glad i'm not a man.


"Is it ethical to keep a dead person alive?"

A profound question that has many resonances on this Good Friday, and in the light of the ongoing furor over Terri Schiavo's feeding tube.

At what point does life end? And at what point should life end? And what does it mean to be alive, or dead, anyway?

Is it ethical that our economic system should be geared towards keeping alive the many people who are dead in spirit - all those who have been, in the words of TS Eliot, undone by death?

posted by eothen @ 9:26 PM