a hero, a scoundrel and a victim...

I've been reading the novel "Chronicler of the Winds" by Henning Mankell lately (great book) and last night there was a passage that hit me. In it he is referring to a group of street kids in Africa, but what hit me was how perfectly it described my kids and I think many of you may be able to relate:

"Gradually he came to know them all, one by one, and he discovered that they were grown up even though they were kids, that they were old men even though they had scarcely reached puberty. Their stories stretched over infinite spaces of experiences, and each was a hero, a scoundrel and a victim in his own drama."