Mumness

Anthony accordingly was mum; but his mumness was visible. He wrapped himself up in secrecy and silence, but both his secrecy and his silence laid him open to the misgivings and the suspicions of those about him.

Like Thomas More, I can't advise Mrs. Chodorov. I must remain mum. Herewith my mumness.

‘Where did you go, love?’ Mum asks, but she asks as if she's not really interested, as if she isn't inside her body any longer, her comfortable familiar mumness.

I asked my girlfriends if they’ve had trouble feeling like themselves during lockdown. “My ‘mumness’ is always on show,” said one friend who manages an entire community service. Another, a partner in a consulting firm, bemoans that her colleagues now identify her as a mother: “I hate that they see me like that.”