quote · Legacy record
The passion for such children contains no ego motive of anticipated reciprocity; one is choosing against, in the poet Richard Wilbur's phrase, 'loving things for reasons'. You find beauty and hope in the existence, rather than the achievements, of such a child. Most parenthood entails some struggle to change, educate and improve one's children; people with multiple severe disabilities may not become anything else, and there is a compelling purity in parental engagement not with what might or should or will be, but with, simply, what is.
The passion for such children contains no ego motive of anticipated reciprocity; one is choosing against, in the poet Richard Wilbur's phrase, 'loving things for reasons'. You find beauty and hope in the existence, rather than the achievements, of such a child. Most parenthood entails some struggle to change, educate and improve one's children; people with multiple severe disabilities may not become anything else, and there is a compelling purity in parental engagement not with what might or should or will be, but with, simply, what is.
Approximate author period: c. 1963 AD · modern
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- Author or tradition
- Andrew Solomon
Attribution: attributed - Country attributed
- Not established
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- Approximate author period: c. 1963 AD · modern
Approximate author-period evidence for Andrew Solomon: documented birth year 1963; activity date not established. Wikidata Q645362, inspected 2026-10-08. Not a quotation composition date or independent verification of attribution. Source: https://www.wikidata.org/wiki/Q645362 (accessed 2026-10-08).
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Supplied reference C; CSV row 251257; supplied attribution, independently unverified
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