Survival of the fittest, as humans we’re good at it. That means nurturing and defending our own children so that they too have their own children who have their own children … We speak of our “own” children with a sense of ownership, an ownership too of their descendents; it’s “our” family lineage. And if my lineage’s survival is threatened by the survival of your lineage, well then …there are things that have to be done …

One of the great commonalities of all of mankind is love of their own children. With some naiveté I imagined that commonality extended such we love all children, and I wrote this note to accompany an exhibit of child portraits:

When every child is our own child, then there will be no more war; for who can bomb the homes of their own child, and who can drive tanks through the villages of their own child, and who can send their own child to study war against their own child?

Emily Dickinson wrote, “The possible’s slow fuse is lit by the imagination. “ Imagine a world without war! Yet Homer noted, so long ago now; “Men grow tired of sleep, love, singing, and dancing sooner than of war.” 

And Pogo said, “Insurmountable opportunity.”