And there are people who think that the existence of my family somehow undermines or weakens or damages their family. 当然有些人会认为，这样的家庭的存在，在某种程度上破坏或削弱，甚至损害了他们的家庭。

And there are people who think that families like mine shouldn't be allowed to exist. 也有些人认为像我们这样的家庭不应该被允许存在。

And I don't accept subtractive models of love, only additive ones. 我不接受消减中的爱，只求递增的爱。

And I believe that in the same way that we need species diversity to ensure that the planet can go on, 同时我也相信，我们需要物种的多样性来确保地球可以延续下去，

so we need this diversity of affection and diversity of family in order to strengthen the ecosphere of kindness. 因此，我们需要这种多样化的感情和家庭来强化仁慈的生物圈。

The day after our son was born, 在我们儿子出生后的第二天，

the pediatrician came into the hospital room and said she was concerned. 儿科医生走进病房说，她很担心。

He wasn't extending his legs appropriately. 他没有适当地伸展他的双腿。

She said that might mean that he had brain damage. 她说这可能意味着他有脑损伤。

In so far as he was extending them, he was doing so asymmetrically, 当他伸腿时，又很不对称，

which she thought could mean that there was a tumor of some kind in action. 她以为这可能意味着有某种类型的肿瘤。

And he had a very large head, which she thought might indicate hydrocephalus. 他的头非常大，她认为这可能意味着他有脑积水。

And as she told me all of these things, 当她告诉我这些事情的时候，

I felt the very center of my being pouring out onto the floor. 我觉得我的身体要倒下去似的。

And I thought, here I had been working for years on a book about how much meaning people had found in the experience of parenting children who are disabled, 我想，我花很多年写的书，关于人们养育残疾子女的经验给他们带来了怎样的意义，

and I didn't want to join their number. 但我还是不想加入他们，

Because what I was encountering was an idea of illness. 我想到的是疾病。

And like all parents since the dawn of time, 就像所有的父母那样，从孩子出生那刻起，

I wanted to protect my child from illness. 我想要我的孩子健康。

And I wanted also to protect myself from illness. 同时我也想自己远离疾病。