The Wisdom of Children

For 31 years Erma Bombeck wrote more than 4,000 hilarious newspaper columns chronicling the everyday life of a suburban housewife and her kids. She used to say, “When I stand God at the end of my life, I would hope that I would not have a single bit of talent left, and could say,  ‘I used everything you gave me.’”In her columns and books, Erma would pretend to tear her hair out over frustration with her children. “My kids refuse to eat anything that hasn’t danced on TV,” she once wrote. She also said, “Never loan your car to anyone whom you’ve given birth.” And perhaps her most famous quote: “Insanity is hereditary—you get it from you kids.” In real life, however, Erma spoke almost reverently about the “Wisdom of children” and the importance that all of us should place on maintaining a child’s outlook on life until the day we die. “I talked with mothers who had lost a child to cancer,” Erma wrote. “Every single one said that death gave their lives new meaning and purpose. And who do you think prepared these mothers for the rough, lonely road they had to travel? Their dying child. It was the children who pointed their mothers toward