Since my kids arrived, I discovered a startling (stupifying) new emotional impulse that hadn’t been present before: the reflexive willingness to walk off a cliff for someone else.

We say this out loud about various people in our lives: employers, friends, favorite novelists, favorite wives. But when push comes to shove… I’m not sure I want to be tested. Don’t quote me.

But our kids? I’ll take the bullet in a heartbeat. And I wish my children would appreciate this as they chuck their scrambled eggs at the ceiling.

This, less than raiding Martians, is what was in my mind when I wrote and painted “MARS NEEDS MOMS!” It’s both a love letter and a mission statement to all mothers… and parents in general. And a message to all of our kids who doubt, in the midst of their wrathful fits, that we wouldn’t die for them. We would. It still shocks me.

- Berkeley Breathed