Thanksgiving Day Unscathed!!

Well folks. It happened. We had a great Thanksgiving Dinner with my relatives (my parents and half my siblings). The turkey was perfect and all the side dishes were out of sight. Lots of bright beautiful colors on my plate.
Even the wine was lovely. At some point I'll have to figure out what led to this comet like occurence. But right now I just want to enjoy it.
Ben is not partial towards Thanksgiving fare. His plate consisted of turkey, stringbeans and a piece of Italian bread I brought out from the kitchen. No stuffing, no mash potatoes, no cranberry anything, no brussel sprouts, no gravy, no pies of ANY kind. One day he'll change his mind. Brian had a nice time too - which makes me very happy. I wouldn't say that the only way to his heart is through his stomach - but it certainly is among the express routes!

Happy Thanksgiving Everyone!

Fly Boy

Brian is on the west coast presenting at a conference. Ben and I are flying solo for four days.

Appropriately enough, it's been raining since Brian left. Ben misses him terribly and carries his dad's baseball mitt around with him as soon as he gets home. He sleeps with it wrapped up in his blanky.

This evening, after dinner, we walked Saki around Tompkins Square Park. We ended up on the black top where there's a baseball diamond painted on the ground along with painted bases. Ben is obsessed with baseball and the Red Sox. He expects that his future will include a few years in the major leagues before he starts his train company.

Ben is tall and big for his age. He's a slow runner and frequently trips over his feet. He plays kickball at recess where he's usually the last one chosen and the last one to up to kick.

As the rain came down he asked that I watch him run around the bases as fast as he could. He was doing everything he could to go fast. Without realizing it, he lifted his arms up like Superman in the hopes of picking up speed.

So I stood there with my dog. Watching my son running bases in the pouring rain with his arms outstretched. Each stumbling step was filled with hope and determination. Just a few minutes more and he'd take flight.

Ben. My greatest teacher and my greatest blessing.

Thank you Jesus!

I stayed up until midnight watching the campaign results on Tuesday. By then it appeared that the Democrats had won the House. It looks like they've won the Senate too. Unbelievable.

I've been so busy with my impossible daily routine that I didn't see this extraordinary news as even a possibility. What a relief to be pulling back from the edge of insanity.

Randy Balmer is an evangelical Christian and noted scholar who teaches at Barnard and Columbia. His most recent book, "Thy Kingdom Come: How the Religous Right Distorts the Faith and Threatens America" has received great reviews and is very thoughtfully written. He has a bumper sticker on his door. I pass it everyday en route to my office.

"When fascism comes to America, it will be wrapped in a flag and a carrying a cross."
-- Sinclair Lewis

VOTE!!!!!!

Please VOTE!

VOTE like your life depended on it.

Because it does!!

And vote for cool people who don't want to make the earth explode or control women's bodies, or take away our civil rights or shed blood for oil.