Something To Think About

"For her part, my mother was probably more alike him than he suspected, the chief difference being that showing her husband affection was among her duties. Though she might harshly reprimand a servant or child, in his presence she was always soft-spoken and demure. She deferred to his opinions, flattered his vanities, and endured his rebukes with meekness. Love was a choice she made, and then made again daily for the remainder of her life. From her I learnt that a woman should not expect her happiness to come from the man himself, but from those acts of devotion she showed him." - Debra Dean The Mirrored World


You've often heard me say "this book really made me think" but I'm not sure I always do my job in explaining what it was in the book that made me think. Sometimes it's an entire concept or theme, as in The Book of Job. Just as often it's likely to be a particular passage that really strikes me, a passage that's not always the one that makes it into my review.

Then the other day I read the above passage in Debra Dean's The Mirrored World that really lit up my brain and made me wonder what you would think about it. The first three sentences raised my hackles; I am not a wife who walks on eye shells around her husband. Those last two sentences, though, I wonder if they wouldn't resonate with all married women. In all things, I truly believe that our happiness must come from our own actions, our own choices. What do you think?

I'm hoping to bring you "Something To Think About" periodically, as I come across other passages that I think might make for good conversation. I hope you'll join me!