A comment I heard on “social justice”: justice is wishing for other people’s children what you wish for your own.

Recently I started volunteering with a youth mentoring program, which has made me reflect on what it was like to be a child: the things I didn’t yet know, and how a few caring adults shaped my life.

Until recently I never empathized with those adults or considered what drove them. I appreciate more now how many adults enthusiastically root for kids they know, looking for ways to “put their thumb on the scales” to give them a boost.