Inquiry into the acquisition of language, part 1

Most of her sentences these days begin with I want or I need. This follows I like and I love, which were her first two sentence constructions.

A friend whose mother taught two-year-olds says, “Two is all about language development.” It’s amazing to watch this, this language development.

So we come to language full of desires, wants, passions. We learn through language to distinguish them.

In Michael Pollen’s fascinating recent New York Times magazine cover story on Julia Child, I was reminded of this tension in the mothering/work paradox: What do we need? What do we want? What are we allowed? How do we choose?

A recent conversation with new mother who feels feminism did not prepare her for the joy she would feel as a mother—that it let her down—because its message focused more on the triumphs and challenges of proving oneself in the work world. The phrase “the burden of choice” surfaced. This silenced us. Cut through our joy (she held a two-week old baby in her arms), brought us back to the earliest questions.

What do I want? What do I need? What do I like? What do I love?