“I was a wonderful parent before I had children.”

The mere existence of an additional child or children in the family could signify Less.

No wonder children struggle so fiercely to be first or best.

The sibling relationship contains enough emotional dynamite to set off rounds of daily explosions.

Less time alone with parents. Less attention for hurts and disappointments. Less approval for accomplishments. . . .

And it’s not hard to understand why in families across the land,

You can call on each other / and count on each other … / because each other / is all you have.

And once he’s clear about that reality, he gathers the strength to begin to cope.

Let us be different in our homes.

When we acknowledge a child’s feelings, we do him a great service.

Keeping our youth and yesterdays alive / Comrades with one history.

Let us realize that along with food, shelter, and clothing

We deprive them of the experience that comes from wrestling with their own problems.

The resentment that each child feels for the privileges of the other;

Deep inside you know / when trouble comes / and there’s no one else to turn to

No wonder they mobilize all their energy to have more or most. Or better still, all.

Add to that the envy that one child feels for the accomplishments of the other;

That’s my only concern. Everything else seems wrong.

The most important task of your life is not what you do, but who you become.

A refugee population is hungry for language and aware that anything can happen.

War is sweet for those who haven’t experienced it.

In pain is a new time born.

I don’t want to be anything special. I only want to try to be true to that in me which seeks to fulfill its promise.

A thing said walks in immortality if it has been said well.

But a state or nation may kill as many as they please, and it is not murder.