kuruntokai 40
What could my mother be to yours?
What kin is my father to yours anyway?
And how did you and I meet ever?
But in love our hearts have mingled
like red earth and pouring rain.
— Cempulappeyanniyar (trans. A.K. Ramanujan)
Do not ask your children to strive
Do not ask your children
to strive for extraordinary lives.
Such striving may seem admirable,
but it is the way of foolishness.
Help them instead to find the wonder
and the marvel of an ordinary life.
Show them the joy of tasting
tomatoes, apples and pears.
Show them how to cry
when pets and people die.
Show them the infinite pleasure
in the touch of a hand.
And make the ordinary come alive for them.
The extraordinary will take care of itself.
― William Martin, The Parent's Tao Te Ching: Ancient Advice for Modern Parents