Page:The Art of Helping People Out of Trouble (1924).pdf/240

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reality the social worker prepared her for the happiness that she later experienced. And is one not justified even in a situation of this sort in taking into consideration the possibility of marriage? After all most people marry and it is in the family that the emotional values of life can find complete expression; for here they are all mingled—the love of man and woman, the being together, the sharing of experiences, the sense of personal relationship with tradition, of oneness with past generations; the satisfaction of the longing to belong somewhere, to have a place in the world, to have a refuge from storm, to feel the security of mutual confidence, of being emancipated from impersonality and of being personal, of being utterly and completely one's self and of being thus beloved.

Family life includes the whole cycle from childhood to parenthood, but there is opportunity for renewal and strength in its every phase. Even to approximate it, as two women in their late thirties did in establishing a home of their own and adopting two children, is to find a sure vehicle for emotional expression. That is why there runs through nearly every one of the personal histories that have appeared in these chapters the effort to safeguard and develop family life. Let a man