They are going home

Adult children have this habit of visiting and then leaving again.  Our daughter and her boyfriend are on their way home as I am writing this.  They have a long flight.  We are struggling with the quiet house that is left behind.

To be fair, they were here a week.  We had a good time.  We didn’t really get enough time.  It never really seems like enough.  We will see them again in June, when we visit them for their grad school graduations.

Our youngest son and his wife and two girls were here overnight yesterday, too.  Their landlord was repairing their bathroom, so they had to stay here.  Their new little dog also was getting neutered at a vet clinic near us, so they brought him out and he stayed here, too.  Our house was crowded, noisy and fun again for about 24 hours.  I really miss them. Our soon to be three granddaughter hadn’t been here since they moved into their new place.  It was interesting to see how she figured out the concept of a new place where she is living and the old place-here. I had painted her room and put in a queen sized bed.  It isn’t finished yet, but looks completely different.  She figured it out, that it is her “old room” and she has a room in her new house, too.  She was thrilled about the room.  She is pretty smart!

Have been trying not to get upset with all of the political crap that is going on.  I will be attending a convention on Saturday for the local Congressional District for my political party of choice.  The candidate whose campaign we are managing will be involved, and is hoping that we will be there, too.  I am not feeling very enthusiastic about it, and I have to go by myself, as my husband is working this weekend.  I have lost my excitement about local politics, and I am disgusted by all of the craziness of the national politics.  Now we have people making death threats against members of congress over the health care law.  This just is so outside of anything I could imagine. 

Recently, when we were discussing some world political issues, a guy (I don’t even remember who I had this discussion with) and I talked a bit about what issues we would be willing to die for.  With all of the suicide bombers, and the history of terrorism, hostage taking and general mayhem of the world, what would I feel was important enough that I would risk death?  Religion?  Human rights? Ecology? Animal rights? Political freedom?  The health care law? 

I remember as a kid reading To Kill a Mocking Bird,Exodus, The Diary of Anne Frank, and other books about selfless people who put their lives on the line for others.  I would like to think that I would have helped the Jews escape if I had lived in Poland during the Nazi era.  I hope that I would have worked for the underground in Nazi-occupied France.  But would I?  If my family was endangered? 

I think I might have been a wimp.

I think I might have at least have been tempted to turn in someone else to save my own child.  I don’t know. 

It bothers me not to know. Not to feel sure of what my answer would be.  If the US goes crazy, as is totally possible with all of the nutcases out there-both in office and in public and in churches-how much would I put on the line? 

My daughter has gone home.  For now, that is all that I can think about.

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