My two daughters are now living far away, attending college. I thought it might be a good time to reflect on what it means to be a parent. I looked hard for some quotes that reflected my experiences:

"Before I got married I had six theories about raising children; now, I have six children and no theories. "  John Wilmot, 2nd Earl of Rochester (1647-1680) 

"One thing I had learned from watching chimpanzees with their infants is that having a child should be fun."  Jane Goodall 

"Parenting without a sense of humor is like being an accountant who sucks at math.” —Amber Dusick, blogger

From "Brain Pickings," a blog by Maria Popova - first, Popova quotes Rilke:

“I hold this to be the highest task of a bond between two people: that each should stand guard over the solitude of the other.”

Then Popova begins her blog post:

"“Love one another but make not a bond of love: let it rather be a moving sea between the shores of your souls,” the great Lebanese-American poet, philosopher, and painter Kahlil Gibran counseled in what remains the finest advice on the secret to a loving and lasting relationship.

Our paradoxical longing for intimacy and independence is a diamagnetic force — it pulls us toward togetherness and simultaneously repels us from it with a mighty magnet that, if unskillfully handled, can rupture a relationship and break a heart. Under this unforgiving magnetism, it becomes an act of superhuman strength and self-transcendence to give space to the other when all one wants is closeness. And yet this difficult act may be the very thing — perhaps the only thing — that saves the relationship over and over."

Fascinating article in the New York Times. The age at which a woman has her first baby has dramatic ramifications.

First-time mothers are older in big cities and on the coasts, and younger in rural areas and in the Great Plains and the South. In New York and San Francisco, their average age is 31 and 32. In Todd County, S.D., and Zapata County, Tex., it’s half a generation earlier, at 20 and 21, according to the analysis, which was of all birth certificates in the United States since 1985 and nearly all for the five years prior.

Back in 2005, I took a look at fake abortion clinics--organizations that are set up to look like abortion clinics, but which are set up to actively discourage abortions. Thousands of these deceptive "clinics" are still operating and many of them are funded by tax dollars. John Oliver has dedicated this recent video to exposing many ways that theses "clinics" are fraudulent.