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

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

I was a wonderful parent before I had children.

From their verbal sparring they learn the difference between being clever and being hurtful.

The personal frustrations that they don’t dare let out on anyone else but a brother or sister,

I was an expert on why everyone else was having problems with theirs. Then I had three of my own.

From their endless rough-housing with each other, they develop speed and agility.

I was a wonderful parent before I had children.

Our job is to let our children know what’s right about them.

Comforters for our todays / Guardians of memories

We put him in touch with his inner reality.

From their struggles to establish dominance over each other, siblings become tougher and more resilient.

And sometimes, from their envy of each other’s special abilities they become inspired to work harder, persist and achieve.

Content in our connectedness / we are brothers and sisters / after all.

No one cares / who is better / who is worse / who has more / who has less.

From the normal irritations of living together, they learn how to assert themselves, defend themselves, compromise.

The whole world will tell them what’s wrong with them–out loud and often.

Despite everything, life is full of beauty and meaning.

Not every truth is the better for showing its face undisguised; and often silence is the wisest thing for a man to heed.

I had a sort of bad experiences as a playwright early on, when directors were putting in huge concepts that I didn’t intend, or they were stylizing something that was compromising the play

I think what we are confronting now is a new war of ideas. It’s not communism versus capitalism, but it is authoritarianism versus democracy and representative government.

The people to whom we minister and speak will not recall 99 percent of what we say to them, but they will never forget the kind of persons we are.

Self-discipline has a bigger effect on academic performance than does intellectual talent.

God’s aim in human history is the creation of an inclusive community of loving persons, with himself included as its primary sustainer and most glorious inhabitant.

The more peace there is in us, the more peace there will be in our troubled world.