I often wonder this: What better prepares us for life, a loving and encouraging childhood or one that is more challenging? Do an inordinate number of slings and arrows in youth give us survival strategies we would otherwise lack? Does a warm and protective childhood shield us permanently no matter what we face later in life? It varies, I’m sure.

Joan Baez grew up in a Quaker family with a physicist father, being introduced to college campuses and interesting cities all around the world, being nurtured and developed. But did that prepare her for the Bob Dylans of the world, who lacked her kindness? Did that make her feel like she could put the world on her shoulders, a weight that no one can bear?

In this 1979 video, she discusses human rights in Vietnam with William F. Buckley.