surely the critics who called this man ‘out of touch’ could never have conceived the united states would elect a man like george w. bush to the white house..

i understand the fear of war and the pain of division that afflict this continent– and i pledge to you my country’s efforts to help overcome these burdens. to be sure, we in the west must resist soviet expansion. so we must maintain defenses of unassailable strength. yet we seek peace; so we must strive to reduce arms on both sides.

beginning 10 years ago, the soviets challenged the western alliance with a grave new threat, hundreds of new and more deadly ss-20 nuclear missiles, capable of striking every capital in europe. the western alliance responded by committing itself to a counter-deployment unless the soviets agreed to negotiate a better solution; namely, the elimination of such weapons on both sides. for many months, the soviets refused to bargain in earnestness. as the alliance, in turn, prepared to go forward with its counter-deployment, there were difficult days–days of protests like those during my 1982 visit to this city–and the soviets later walked away from the table.

but through it all, the alliance held firm. and i invite those who protested then– i invite those who protest today–to mark this fact: because we remained strong, the soviets came back to the table. and because we remained strong, today we have within reach the possibility, not merely of limiting the growth of arms, but of eliminating, for the first time, an entire class of nuclear weapons from the face of the earth.

ronald reagan
remarks at the brandenburg gate
west berlin, germany
12 june 1987

ethan started swimming lessons a few weeks ago. to prepare him for the classes i took him to the pool a few times beforehand to get used to the water. he never did anything remarkable but at least wasn’t afraid of the water.

during most of his first class he was pretty much the same as all the other kids until it came time to put their head under water and emerge in the center of a hula hoop. none of the other kids did it without the teacher raising the hula hoop out of the water.

on his first try, ethan plunged his head under the water, surged forward and popped up in the center of the hula hoop. while wiping water from his face he searched pool side to find me and his face erupted with the largest grin.

given the way my entire body reacted with joy to this simple achievement i can only observe that i have officially become a parent.

yesterday i scampered up the devils staircase to stand at the foot of mt doom (mt ngauruhoe in new zealand), withstood 40+ knot winds at the precipice of an active volcanic crater, and tramped over 18 kilometers rising 800 meters and descending more than 1100 meters.

what did you do?

you hear of people with “natural optimism” but i’m wondering if the same is true of cynicism.

is cynicsim also innate or do you have to be screwed over sufficiently to acquire a healthy degree?

and by the way, i chose the adjective healthy intentionally because i’m optimistic that my brand of cynicism it ultimately a good thing.

on this past two week holiday i didn’t take a computer along with me. its the first time in over a decade i haven’t had a computer at my immediate disposal.

since we’re in new zealand i’ll use a lord of the rings analogy to describe my two week separation from the one computer. as long as i’m far away there is only the slightest pull and feintest sense of something missing but as soon as i sit down in front of her i would toss samwise off mount doom if he tried to take her away from me…

is it not enough the buckeye state is the epicenter of the sub prime crisis and the deciding vote in the 2004 presidential catastrophe.

they go to the polls one more time and remind us that their brains freeze up during all their nine months of winter…

the car that catches fire took us nearly 4,000 kilometers with a mere 2 calls to aa (the new zealand equivalent of aaa). given we made every destination on our itinerary and slept each night at the appointed stop we’re all smiling about it…

we’re back from our two week holiday on the south island. it was a brilliant trip.

more photos after i clear my inboxes…