Word: navel
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When my feet neither hit the ground nor dangle in the air, but point upward, I have time to reflect on my journey. I cannot navel gaze—because that would hurt my head—nor can I be oblivious to the dangers along the road, but I can recognize the voices of the people who are carrying me. Like the chatter between bride-bearers that enabled the bride to appreciate them for carrying meat—so that the tigers would not devour her—the conversations I’ve had enable me to appreciate...
...There’s a lot of navel-gazing in academia,” said Dean of Students Ellen M. Cosgrove, who lauded Kagan for transforming the pace and productivity at the Law School. “She was someone who wants to get the job done quickly, on a time-frame that is more consistent with the real world and the corporate world...
Furthermore, Europe is criticized for being too preoccupied with itself. True, several years of public debate over the Lisbon Treaty might be interpreted as institutional navel-gazing. But have a broader look at the facts: over the last 15 years, the E.U. has taken on board 15 new members, doubling its size without compromising on its strict accession criteria. This required massive transfers of wealth and a high degree of solidarity...
...Dust Bowl years of the Great Depression, farmers who fled West out of the prairies found a paradise of citrus groves in Southern California: miles upon miles of navel and Valencia oranges, planted in a vast swath of Riverside and San Bernardino counties, which stretch from East Los Angeles to the Arizona and Nevada borders. Starting in the 1970s, that area, now known as the Inland Empire, became a mecca for a new kind of homesteader: young families lured by cheap land and an easy commute to L.A. By 2008, it was home to 4.1 million people...
...whereas in Eat, Pray, Love the journey was what mattered, the end of Committed is, as of page 18, a foregone conclusion. As Gilbert puts it, she and her lover are "sentenced to marry." This makes the book a supreme act of navel-gazing, even for a memoir. While the legal complexities are being worked out, the two kill time by traveling together. Along the way, Gilbert, ever the good journalist, gathers string on marriage and love from various sources, including the humble Hmong women of North Vietnam, seagulls, a humble frog-farming family in Laos and her humble...