is a force more formidable than any other. It is invisible—it cannot be seen or measured, yet it is powerful enough to transform you in a moment, and to offer you more joy than any material possession could.
—Barbara De Angelis, author and transformational teacher
Infatuation is when you think he’s as sexy as Robert Redford, as smart as Henry Kissinger, as noble as Ralph Nader, as funny as Woody Allen, and as athletic as Jimmy Connors. Love is when you realize that he’s as sexy as Woody Allen, as smart as Jimmy Connors, as funny as Ralph Nader, as athletic as Henry Kissinger and nothing like Robert Redford—but you’ll take him anyway.
—Judith Viorst, journalist and psychoanalytic researcher
Hate leaves ugly scars; love leaves beautiful ones.
—Mignon McLaughlin, journalist and author of The Neurotic’s Notebook and sequels
Love never reasons but profusely gives, like a thoughtless prodigal, it’s all, and trembles lest it has done too little.
—Hannah More, poet, playwright, religious writer, and philanthropist
Love makes your soul crawl out from its hiding place.
—Zora Neale Hurston, novelist, folklorist, and anthropologist
Love is a game that two can play and both win.
—Eva Gabor, Hungarian-born actress, comedian, and singer
Badass Women Who Followed Their Bliss All the Way
Of Cockpits, Cocks and Bulls, and Other “Ladylike” Pursuits
Adalynn (Jonnie) Jonckowski: This card-carrying member of the cowgirl hall of fame has an unusual idea of a good time—hopping on the back of an angry bull and hanging on as long as possible. Called the “Belle of Billings” (Montana), she has repeatedly proved to be the world’s best bull rider. Adalynn’s winning attitude is evidenced here, “Any time you have the freedom to do what you want to do and exercise that freedom, you’re a champ.”
While Jonnie Jonckowski clings to the backs of angry Brahma bulls, Julie Krone has her own wild rides. Petite and determined, Julie Krone was the first female jockey to win the Triple Crown, a race at the Belmont Stakes. She has shown that women can ride the winning race and has $54 million worth of purses to show for it. (Jockeys keep 10 percent of the take, quite a motivator!) Even though Julie says that “times have changed” for women, she will still occasionally be heckled with yells of “Go home, have babies, and do the dishes,” when she loses. The wealthy winner’s final comment: “In a lot of people’s minds, a girl jockey is cute and delicate. With me, what you get is reckless and aggressive.”
Shirley Muldowney, born Belgium Roque, took on one of the last bastions of machodom—drag racing—and came up a winner. She fell in love with cars at the age of fourteen in Schenectady, New York, racing illegally “when the police weren’t looking.” At fifteen, she married mechanic Jack Muldowney, and they became a hot-rodding couple. Shirley put up with enormous hostility from race fans and outright hatred from fellow drivers. In 1965, she became the first woman to operate a top-gas dragster and went on to win seventeen National Hot Rod Association titles, second only to Don Garliz. Queen of the cockpit, Shirley Muldowney became an internationally famous superstar with a critically acclaimed film about her life and achievements, Heart Like a Wheel.
Hockey is certainly no sport for lightweights. For many, taking shots from a bunch of big men with sticks might seem like a risky business, but to French Canadian Manon Rhéaume, it was the sport she loved. She was a goalie for the Atlanta Knights and, as such, is the first woman to have played professional hockey in the men’s leagues. At five feet six and 135 pounds, Manon was slight compared to many of her team members and opponents, but she proved her ability to stop a puck. The world is finally taking note of women’s ability to play this sport overall; in the year 1998, women’s ice hockey became a full medal sport at the Winter Olympics, no small thanks to Manon and others like her.
Then there’s Angela Hernandez, who is surely to be admired for fighting for her right to bullfight in the birthplace of machismo—Spain! In the polyester-laden year 1973, she demanded to be allowed to compete in the male-only zone of the bullring. This caused quite a commotion; how dare she question the 1908 law forbidding women to participate in the sport of horseback bullfighting. Twenty-year-old Angela took her case all the way to the courts, where the Madrid labor court ruled in her favor, allowing her to fight, but only on foot. But threatened males found another way to thwart her—the Ministry of the Interior wouldn’t issue her a license. Would-be torero Angela refused to go quietly into the Seville sunset, loudly contesting her plight, “These damned men. What do they think they are doing? Women fly planes, fight wars, and go on safaris; what’s so different about fighting bulls?”
There’s nothing more freeing than the shackles of love.
—Emma Racine deFleur, witty writer
The Eskimos had fifty-two names for snow because it was important to them: there ought to be as many for love.
—Margaret Atwood, Canadian literary critic, eco-activist, and author of The Handmaid’s Tale
Nobody has ever measured, even poets, how much a heart can hold.
—Zelda Fitzgerald, novelist, painter, and socialite of the 1920s
Love, like a river, will cut a new path whenever it meets an obstacle.
—Crystal Middlemas, poetic writer
When you love someone, all your saved-up wishes start coming out.
—Elizabeth Bowen, Irish novelist and short story writer
Love is like quicksilver in the hand. Leave the fingers open and it stays. Clutch it, and it darts away.
—Dorothy Parker, deathless poet, short fiction writer, critic, and satirist of skewering wit
The truth [is] that there is only one terminal dignity—love. And the story of all love
