They believe that the sustained effect of living with needy young children for an extended period of life fosters other-regarding virtues necessary for egalitarianism and civic friendship: empathy, generosity, solidarity, and self-denial. Like Hannah, my subjects typically described a life of religious seriousness in which they allowed their beliefs about God and the meaning of life to shape their own hearts and desires. Finally, like Hannah, they had adopted a posture of openness to children as a way of life and not a mere season.
