Buds.

One of the people I've started reading this spring is Karen Walrond, who quit her sixteen-year law career six months ago so that she could pursue her real passions, which are photography and writing and parenting.  Every Thursday, she puts a "Love Thursday" post on her blog, and today's recounts a conversation with her young daughter, who not long ago spontaneously declared that she would miss her mom--someday, when she herself had to move away.  

I'm always happy to say that I miss my parents all the time.  They are some of the mighty finest people in my life--not just as parents but also as people, plain and simple.  Most of what I've learned about how to be decent, accepting, responsible, and respectful--not to mention what I've learned about how "tolerance" can be, in some important ways, an awful, limiting concept that allows people to dismiss others' ways of life without making an effort to value or even understand them and their feelings and then allows those same people to think that they're being upstanding and thoughtful in their relationships with others--I learned through watching and interacting with and being taught by them.  Which is why, as soon as I'm done resting a little after the conclusion of my semester's major administrative service duty sometime tomorrow, I'm out of here, on the road, headed toward my favorite people.