Reply #1: Thought Crimes: Part Two [View All]

[H2O Man]

Your children are not your children.
They are the sons and daughters of Life's longing for itself.
They come through you but not from you
And though they are with you
yet they belong not to you.

You may give them your love but not your thoughts,
For they have their own thoughts.
You may house their bodies but not their souls,
For their souls dwell in the house of tomorrow,
which you cannot visit, even in your dreams.

You may strive to be like them,
but seek not to make them like you,
For life goes not backward nor tarries with yesterday.

You are the bows from which your children
as living arrows are sent forth ....
Let your bending in the archer's hand
be for gladness.

-- Kahlil Gibran


(These two poems were A.S. Neill's favorites.)