As our sages have said, youth builds a universe with self at the center. - Sheri S. Tepper

Handling surplus population is a perpetual challenge, said Onsofruct. Has it not been written that the poor are always with us?"
Questioner shook her head. "Handling surplus men isn't that difficult. Just start a lively war or find some new frontier—there's always dangerous work that needs doing. If that fails, one can create lethal rites of passage to kill off batches at a time. One needn't pretend, not with men. The gang chief or general simply talks them into a fury and sends them into battle, and then gives them a medal after they're maimed or dead. Or, the employer gets them to use up their lives in a factory and then tosses them aside with a memento and an inadequate pension. Team spirit does the rest.

I have often wondered why anger is considered by some Western religions to be a sin. It is such a marvelous protection against evil.

Myra subsided into outraged and sulky silence. Her romantic dream of motherhood had been riven into sharp-edged fragments by late-night feedings, constant diaper washing, and a baby who persisted in looking and acting like a baby, not like a young hero.