The Median Sib

I was walking a group of kindergarteners to my classroom this morning, and I remarked that one child in the group was absent today. One little girl replied, “I’m absent, too, but my mother wouldn’t let me stay home.”

I’m still smiling at her comment. However, it’s true. Sometimes we may be there in body, but for all intents and purposes, we are absent.

I wrote a few days ago about my mother’s surgery. She’s home from the hospital now and is improving each day, although the journey back to health isn’t pleasant.

In Joan’s blog, Daddy’s Roses, Joan included a poem she wrote about our mother. It is beautiful. On the chance that you haven’t checked it out yet, I hope you’ll go there and read it.

You can tell from reading this blog that I love finding quotes that express how I feel in a unique and/or succinct way.

I recently read a quote in Daddy’s Roses that spoke to me. It’s by Mark Twain, the source of many memorable quotes. I will take the liberty of copying from Joan’s blog in order to add that quote here: “Travel is fatal to prejudice, bigotry, and narrow-mindednes… charitable views of men and things cannot be acquired by vegetating in one little corner of the earth all one’s lifetime.”

Read Joan’s post that included the above quote. The quote is repeated in another post of hers that deals with blogging and how it is a way to expand our “travels.”

Check out another of Joan’s posts on quotes from Mark Twain and others.

Last night four of my very best friends came over to eat dinner with me. PawPaw was there along with Connie, Patti, and Dave. It was the first time PawPaw had the opportunity to meet and visit with the others. It was relaxing and enjoyable to be able to talk and laugh and gossip and tell jokes and catch up with what’s been going on in each others’ lives. Life can be difficult. Connie is on a leave of absence from her teaching job to care for her father who has cancer. She told me last night that the doctors have said her father only has a few months to live. She had to ask her brother to care for her father last night so she could be with us. Patti is struggling with life after Roger’s unexpected death a few weeks ago along with the poor health of both her mother and stepfather. Dave told us about his three trips to Mississippi to help with cleanup after Hurricane Katrina. Connie, Dave and I share the same unfortunate experience of having gone through a marriage and subsequent divorce within the past three years. We didn’t avoid talking about our troubles, but we didn’t dwell on them either. It was a light-hearted and fun evening. There’s nothing remarkable or newsworthy to report from the evening other than to thank God for good friends.