Salon | Letters to the editor

_______________COYOTE DREAMS BY CYNTHIA ROMANOV (11/21/97)

I have just read my first issue of "Mothers Who Think." I was very disappointed by your selection of Cynthia Romanov's piece as something written by a "thinking woman"!! That is not to say there is a lack of ability in her to produce an adequate quasi-fiction piece. But, as a contemporary tragedy, it is feeling not thought that predominates!
She and Ariel Gore, of "Escape from Parenting," represent a generation or two that has lived its life on "what feels good" rather than on what objectively is good. In their narcissism it is doubtful either have contributed much to the common good.
I was in college in the '60s and '70s with such sad individuals; after 30 years one can safely say such existences have been a waste of lives full of potential. When one is in hot pursuit of a "good lay," alcohol, drugs or whatever exotic false religion one might conjure up for excitement, one freezes their intellectual and emotional maturity to the age one was when they first began the chase: 14? 16? They have sadly stayed behind on the journey, while the rest of us have gone on to experience life as it is, to contribute to society as a whole and to heal some of its wounds. (I am a nurse, my husband a doctor; we are parents of four responsible children.)
The choice of such a "lead article" puts a lie to the title of your e-zine. This and other articles proffered together depict a pitifully self-indulgent, poorly self-controlled and vacuous existence; hardly to be called thinking, it is not even real "living." Ms. Romanov represents the sad result of poor lifelong choices. There is not a shred of happiness apparent in her story -- only a rare and fleetly passing physical pleasure. She doesn't even know what might have been had she not chosen the drugs/sex/new age ways of "dropping out," of substituting myth for reality and real meaning in her life.
One does not have to settle for the pathos of accepting a "demon lover," who will steal from her more than he will ever give. For his is the counterfeit. Why settle for that which will fail to satisfy? There is One who promises to be "closer than a brother"; who is LOVE itself; who has promised to "never leave us orphaned, though a mother would forsake her child, he will never forsake us." Jesus invites us to abide with him; he came to show the Way to lasting happiness! We don't have to settle for "crumbs" of satisfaction; he owns the loaf!
If Ms. Romanov would seek, she will find; if she asks God to fill her, he will; he sends a Holy spirit, not a demon one. If she would instead choose to live by the Golden Rule, doing for others instead of always self, she would experience a joy that will last, even when a best friend or husband leaves!
-- Ellen Weeks
SALON | DEC. 4, 1997

R E C E N T L Y+| "PROGRESSIVE" EDUCATION BY DAVID HOROWITZ

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_______________COYOTE DREAMS BY CYNTHIA ROMANOV (11/21/97)
	I have just read my first issue of "Mothers Who Think." I was very disappointed by your selection of Cynthia Romanov's piece as something written by a "thinking woman"!! That is not to say there is a lack of ability in her to produce an adequate quasi-fiction piece. But, as a contemporary tragedy, it is feeling not thought that predominates! She and Ariel Gore, of "Escape from Parenting," represent a generation or two that has lived its life on "what feels good" rather than on what objectively is good. In their narcissism it is doubtful either have contributed much to the common good. I was in college in the '60s and '70s with such sad individuals; after 30 years one can safely say such existences have been a waste of lives full of potential. When one is in hot pursuit of a "good lay," alcohol, drugs or whatever exotic false religion one might conjure up for excitement, one freezes their intellectual and emotional maturity to the age one was when they first began the chase: 14? 16? They have sadly stayed behind on the journey, while the rest of us have gone on to experience life as it is, to contribute to society as a whole and to heal some of its wounds. (I am a nurse, my husband a doctor; we are parents of four responsible children.) The choice of such a "lead article" puts a lie to the title of your e-zine. This and other articles proffered together depict a pitifully self-indulgent, poorly self-controlled and vacuous existence; hardly to be called thinking, it is not even real "living." Ms. Romanov represents the sad result of poor lifelong choices. There is not a shred of happiness apparent in her story -- only a rare and fleetly passing physical pleasure. She doesn't even know what might have been had she not chosen the drugs/sex/new age ways of "dropping out," of substituting myth for reality and real meaning in her life. One does not have to settle for the pathos of accepting a "demon lover," who will steal from her more than he will ever give. For his is the counterfeit. Why settle for that which will fail to satisfy? There is One who promises to be "closer than a brother"; who is LOVE itself; who has promised to "never leave us orphaned, though a mother would forsake her child, he will never forsake us." Jesus invites us to abide with him; he came to show the Way to lasting happiness! We don't have to settle for "crumbs" of satisfaction; he owns the loaf! If Ms. Romanov would seek, she will find; if she asks God to fill her, he will; he sends a Holy spirit, not a demon one. If she would instead choose to live by the Golden Rule, doing for others instead of always self, she would experience a joy that will last, even when a best friend or husband leaves! -- Ellen Weeks SALON \| DEC. 4, 1997