All vs. Enough

“While our friends worry about the quality of middle schools, our parental duties include bringing our son to the ER to get stitches after he puts his head through a window, then arranging for a window replacement and for a special treatment for all the glass in our house so it won’t shatter — at a pretty penny. Other friends declare, ‘I couldn’t do what you do.’ If I am to conform to their expectations, I’m not sure what I am supposed to do: Beat my son? Kill myself? (Sadly, parents with kids like my son have done exactly that.) Maybe it’s my Buddhist outlook, but I’m not consumed with worry and frenzy and despair like I’m ‘supposed’ to be.”
— Writing for The Atlantic, novelist Marie Myung-Ok Lee makes a case for “having enough” over “having it all.” She also mentions that the Anne-Marie Slaughter piece — “Why Women Still Can’t Have It All” — is the most-read article in the magazine’s history. (!)