Food for Thought

One of my favorite paragraphs in its entirety from the novel Atlas Shrugged by Ayn Rand; and, no, it's not taken out of context:

"That special pleasure she had felt in watching him eat the food she had prepared--she thought, lying still, her eyes closed, her mind moving, like time, through some realm of veiled slowness--it had been the pleasure of knowing that she had provided him with a sensual enjoyment, that one form of his body's satisfaction had come from her.... There is a reason, she thought, why a woman would wish to cook for a man...oh, not as a duty, not as a chronic career, only as a rare and special rite in symbol of...but what have they made of it, the preachers of woman's duty?...The castrated performance of a sickening drudgery was held to be a woman's proper virtue--while that which gave it meaning and sanction was held as a shameful sin...the work of dealing with grease, steam and slimy peelings in a reeking kitchen was held to be a spiritual matter, an act of compliance with her moral duty--while the meeting of two bodies in a bedroom was held to be a physical indulgence, an act of surrender to an animal instict, with no glory, meaning or pride of spirit to be claimed by the animals involved." -p. 711

Take from it what you will. I love it.