Aerie InternationaL - Missoula County Public Schools

Often I wondered what sort of parents would abandon their child to
a terrible life such as I was seeing. I knew the children were maltreated
and starved. I knew that there simply were not enough hospitals to
support the demand of the community, and not enough orphanage
workers to give the basic emotional support every young child needs. It
was not self-righteousness that spurred me, but the stirrings of a perfect
sorrow that
convinced me to
help these
children. I
always had the
choice. No one
dragged me
out of bed each
morning, forced
me to travel
mile after mile
to the deserted,
harvestless farm
and teach these
children
humanity. Yet
twice a week all
that summer I
found that I was
awake, dressed
and aching to
aid the poor
unfortunate
souls, my
spiritual
brothers and
sisters who had
no parents to
hippotherapy | traditional black and white photography
love them, no
relatives to raise
them, no friends
to accept them. I knew that Fate could just as well have chosen me to
be in their place, all the sparkle of youthfulness drained by a childhood
that was not childhood but a life of misery and pain and little chance of
survival.
I learned more about love and humankind that summer than I ever
have before or since. It was a rude awakening, a cruel reminder that
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