Sublime

the adults in their lives had become so naively overprotective that they deluded themselves into thinking that not talking about suffering would in some way magically protect their children from it.

Through great emotion, he told them that he had paid a high price to learn a simple yet essential lesson: “Protect the asset.”

He bunked in the tent next to mine, and every time a fax would arrive from Angie he’d read it to me, beaming. “Jeez,” he would announce, “how do you suppose a screwup like me could have raised such a great kid?”

It does not surprise me to hear that there is considerably less violence in cultures where people think in terms of human needs than in cultures where people label one another as “good” or “bad” and believe that the “bad” ones deserve to be punished. In 75 percent of the television programs shown during hours when American children are most likely

He always found it easier to talk to grown-ups than to children and had always been better at it than other children—a fact he attributed to the idiotic childishness of other children.

Alex is not showing off during his checkup. He is behaving much as he does with his parents—he reasons, negotiates, and jokes with equal ease.

He gained a reputation as one of the best shipwreck divers on the East Coast; some said he might be among the best in the world. One day Nagle paid him the highest compliment by saying, “When you die no one will ever find your body.”

Nonviolent Communication by Marshall Rosenberg.

Because he had a parent whom he couldn’t trust or get close to, he has trouble understanding the language of love and intimacy.