Larger Than Life

by Jodi Picoult

animals felt as deeply as we did. Emotions were not quantifiable—not in humans, and not in elephants. For science to say something was true, it had to be measurable. And yet. The bond between a mother and a child weighed nothing on a scale; it took up no room in a test tube. But most of us would have a hard time saying it didn’t exist. I kept my hunch to myself but put aside my notes on

is a reason people say being a mother is the hardest job in the world: You do not sleep and you do not get vacation time. You do not leave your work on your desk at the end of the day. Your briefcase is your heart, and you are rifling through it constantly. Your office is as wide as the world, and your punch card is measured not in hours but in a lifetime.