Munch, my man! Have a beer, dude.

Which is the sadder scenario: a mother who has lost her child or a child who has lost his mother? Munch explores both with his paintings "The Sick Child" and "The Dead Mother and the Child". I find the latter more unbearable because a child has nothing except his parents (and often that means "the mother", even if the father is physically present) and lacks the reasoning to be stoical, whereas a parent often has a spouse, work, and other family, as well as cognitive powers necessary to subdue pain, rationalize loss, and look to the future. A child in despair is at one with his misery; he can visualize nothing but his anguish - it is past, present, and future. I hate seeing children unhappy. I think men are jealous of women because the female has a unique relationship to the child. Gestation is no small favor, nor is childbirth. The kid owes his mother, right from the beginning. If she breastfeeds, Mom gets top billing for the first six months. In fact, Dad doesn't appear on the marquee until the child is old enough to talk (we're so right-brained that we can't relate except in linear, rational terms), at which time junior's personality is already cast in stone, an image sculpted entirely by the mother.