'Is this not in large measure what it means to belong to a family: to burden each other - and find, almost miraculously, that others are willing, even happy, to carry such burdens? Families would not have the significance they have for us if they did not, in fact, give us claim upon each other. At least in this sphere of life we do not come together as autonomous individuals freely contracting with each other. We simply find ourselves thrown together and asked to share the burdens of life while learning to care for each other...'
Gilbert Meilaender in Dick Keyes, Seeing through Cynicism: A Reconsideration of the Power of Suspicion, p.198.
