We never talked about the future anymore — she refused to, and I had to accept that. The present was enough, though my work in the cemetery told me e… - Louise Erdrich

What happens when you let an unsatisfactory present go on long enough? It becomes your entire history.

The present was enough, though my work in the cemetery told me every day what happens when you let an unsatisfactory present go on long enough: it becomes your entire history.

...whom he had saved from a life of excessive freedom

Can you stop your mother from singing to you? Who would do such a thing?

People didn't want to think about boarding schools — the era of forced assimilation was supposed to be over. But then again, kids from chaotic families didn't get to school, or get sleep, or real food, or homework help. And they'd never get out of the chaos — whatever brand of chaos, from addictions to depression to failing health — unless they got to school. To succeed in school, kids had to attend regularly, eat regularly, sleep regularly, and study regularly. Maybe the boarding schools of the earliest days had stripped away culture from the vulnerable, had left adults with little understanding of how to give love or parent, but what now? Kids needed some intervention, but not the wrenching away of foster families and outside adoptions.