Just a midday Tuesday kind of thought.

1. My family is getting older, and quickly.  My 11-year-old sister called me twice this weekend, both times to tell me that she wears a size 8 shoe.  She left two voice mail messages, and when I called her back and the phone was handed to her, she said first thing, "I was wondering when you would call."  (And my even younger sister, Rebekah, the one who answered the phone, responded to my request for Rachel in a very college roommatey sort of way.  An "Oh, I know why you're calling because Rachel and I have already discussed this in detail, but I'm not going to ask you to talk to me first, because it is her call, and when she's done talking to you, she'll tell me everything anyway" sort of way.  She is eight.  I think.)
 
And now Rachel has a blog, which is articulate.  And not very much like the kind of thing a little girl who exclusively draws with crayon and likes to play games even though she can barely read would write.  (My point is, gone are the days of crayons and illiteracy.  She's a thinker--and a better writer than many of my high school students.)
 
rachelandothers.blogspot.com
 
I have so say, I love this.  It's new blood, new thinking, new Olsony life.  I'm excited to be with them again, talk with them, share what I've been reading with them, and try (with them and their adulty souls and brains) to negotiate solutions or approaches to the trickiness of our current intellectual and political lives in the American waterbed. 
 
I keep praying for guidance about fulfilling my civic duty.
 
I haven't seen the family since January.  This is 2004, it's July, and I haven't seen my family since January.  I'm not sure where we went awry.
 
2.  I love The West Wing.