Below are resources for a better understanding of EME's values.  Included will be reviews of books and movies, as well as long quotes and the recognition of arts that portray pro-nature, pro-child, and pro-mother values.

Nathaniel Hawthorne went home to tell his wife that he had just been fired from his job.  "Good," she said.  "Now you can write your book."  "What do we live on meanwhile?" Hawthorne asked.  His wife opened a drawer filled with money.  "I have always known that you are a man of genius," she said.  "So I saved a little each week, and now I have enough to last for a year."  Hawthorne used the time to write The Scarlet Letter, one of the great masterpieces of American Literature.  ---------------------------------------------------  Good Stuff Magazine 

There was a little boy with a bad temper.  His father gave him a bag of nails and told him to hammer a nail in the back fence every time he lost control.  The first day the boy drove 37 nails into the fence.  Then it gradually dwindled down.  He discovered it was easier to hold his temper than to drive those nails into the fence.  Finally the day came when the boy didn't lose his temper at all.  His father suggested that the boy now pull out one nail for each day that he was able to hold his temper.  The days passed and the young boy was finally able to tell his father that all the nails were gone.  The father led his son to the fence.  "You have done well, but look at the holes in the fence," he said.  "When you say things in anger, they leave a scar just like the nail holes.  You can put a knife in a person and draw it out.  It won't matter how many times you say 'I'm sorry,' the wound is still there.  A verbal wound is as bad as a physical one.  -------------------------------Good Stuff Magazine

An elderly man, harassed by the taunts of the neighborhood children, devised a scheme.  He offered to pay them a dollar each if they would return on Tuesday and yell their insults again.  The children did so eagerly and received the money.  Then he told them he would pay only 25 cents on Wednesday.  When they returned, insulted him again and collected their quarters, he informed them that Thursday's rate would be just a penny.  "Forget it," they said - and never taunted him again.  --------------------------------------Alfie Kohn in The Boston Globe

In the September 17, 2001 issue of Primary Care Reports, a journal for primary care physicians, two issues are addressed that concern EME.  Regarding co-sleeping (an infant sleeping in contact with or very close to another family member), the American Academy of Pediatrics acknowledges that there are advantages and disadvantages to co-sleeping.  This publication states that many factors must be taken into account, such as the infant's needs, the cultural milieu of the family, the current sleep environment, and the parental use of drugs, alcohol, and cigarettes.  It claims that the question of where a child should sleep has no absolute right or wrong answer.  Regarding newborn male circumcision, this publication states that medical data of benefits are not sufficient to recommend routine neonatal circumcision.

Biologist and poet Sandra Steingraber is the author of Having Faith: An Ecologist's Journey to Motherhood (Perseus Books, 2001).  The Utne Reader in their May-June 2001 issue reran an essay by her that first appeared elsewhere about how she, as a cancer survivor and nursing mother, grappled with the fact that breast milk contains dangerous chemicals.   She remains convinced that breast milk and the breast-feeding relationship between mother and baby are vastly superior to resorting to bottle-feeding.   She rightly points out that motivated mothers must be concerned with environmental issues.  Mothers are forced to look beyond the seclusion of home to safeguard their children's health and happiness.  She closes her article with these words: "A woman's body is the first environment.  If alternatives to PVC and other carcinogens exist, we have a moral obligation to use them.  Compromising the goodness of breast milk is a human rights violation of the highest order."

A father wrote this letter to the January 2002 issue of Mensa Bulletin: I read with interest about the ... family (October).  His insight into late parenting expresses a view opposite of mine.  I am the second of five children at 31, 35, 42, 46, and 54.  I always remember my father as an old man.  He, unlike me, aged fast.  I was determined to have my children while I was still young.  I thought (and still think) the best time to have children is in one's 20s.  My youngest child was born a month after I turned 31.  This was a bit old by my standards.  My children were around for many of my challenges.  They celebrated with me when I got my college degree.  They saw the hard times and were around to see the results of my hard work and my persistent pursuit of education.
   It's great to be young with your children and grandchildren.  It was great fun when my grandchildren were big enough to ride go-carts with me.  It was a major thrill to ride the rides at Disney World with some of my grandchildren.  It's also nice to reach age 50 with no children left at home and be able to fly to Hawaii, London, and Paris with my wife.  With no school to worry about, vacation time is more flexible.  A grandfather at 41 is able to do a lot more with his grandchildren than a grandfather in his 70s or 80s.  People who have children late in life may not even see their great-grandchildren, let alone have fun with them as I plan to do.   I would not be surprised to become a great-grandfather at the age ...'s father became a father!  I have had a much fuller and happier life because of the grandchildren I have enjoyed over the past 16 years.  It is funny that ... gets mistaken for his kid's grandfather and I get mistaken for my grandchildren's dad!

The following is carved into the wall of Mother Theresa's home for children in Calcutta:
People are often unreasonable, illogical and self-centered.  Forgive them anyway.
If you are kind, people may accuse you of selfish, ulterior motives.  Be kind
 anyway.
If you are successful, you will win some false friends and some true enemies.
 Succeed anyway.
If you are honest and frank, people may cheat you.  Be honest and frank anyway.
What you spend years building someone could destroy overnight.  Build anyway.
If you fine serenity and happiness, they may be jealous.  Be happy anyway.
The good you do today, people will forget tomorrow.  Do good anyway.
Give the world the best you have, and it may never be enough.  Give the world
 the best you have anyway....
 
 
 

 
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