Difference

E koekoe te tui
E ketekete te kaka
E kuku te kereru

The tui sings,
The kaka chatters,
The kereru coos.

- Maori proverb

Meaning: We all have our different characteristics.

Mother would tell us - “you're all different” - as she tried to mediate yet another outbreak of sibling rivalry. She would have appreciated this Maori proverb had she known of it. She certainly had absorbed its essence.

We came to respond - in that smart alec attitude of youth: "in many ways we're all the same". A saying burdened by a truth that siblings often do not like to ponder for more than a fleeting moment.