I Almost Became A Political Journalist, Having

I Think Very Often When We Think We Are Aiming At The Best For Our Children, What We Are Really Doing Is Trying To Position Them For Competitive Success In An Intensely Driven Kind Of Society. I'm Not Sure That Always Leads To The Good Life Or To Happiness.

I Do Not Argue That Nature Is Sacrosanct In The Sense That We Must Never Tamper With Nature. That Would Disempower, Really, All Of Medicine. That Would Mean That We Can't Combat Dread Diseases - Malaria, Polio, All Of Which Are Given By Nature, If One Thinks About It.

Aiming At Giving Our Kids A Competitive Edge In A Consumer Society - That, In Principle, Is A Goal That Is Limitless.

Parental Love Is Not Contingent On The Talents And Attributes The Child Happens To Have. We Choose Our Friends And Spouses At Least Partly On The Basis Of Qualities We Find Attractive. But We Do Not Choose Our Children. Their Qualities Are Unpredictable, And Even The Most Conscientious Parents Cannot Be Held Wholly Responsible For The Kind Of Child They Have. That Is Why Parenthood, More Than Other Human Relationships, Teaches What The Theologian William F. May Calls An “openness To The Unbidden.

I Think Part Of Being A Parent, To Love One's Child, Is To Accept Them As They Come - Not To See Them As Instruments Of Our Ambition Or As Creatures To Be Molded, As If They Were Themselves Commodities.