Owning Ourselves

An old American creed reminds us that liberty means responsibility.

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Don’t it always seem to go That you don’t know what you’ve got Till it’s gone

So goes a signature line from singer-songwriter Joni Mitchell’s “Big Yellow Taxi.”

Sometimes we become so accustomed to someone or something—a spouse, a child, good health—that only their absence opens our eyes and our hearts. Catastrophe strikes—a death, a dire illness, a bankruptcy—and only then does the familiar become wonderfully and fearfully precious.