Summer Reading (Listening) List

Tomorrow I go off-grid for almost three weeks. With 50+ hours of solo drive time ahead of me (Mass.-->Wyoming-->New Mexico), I cleaned out the books-on-tape / books-on-CD section of the local library. What I'll be soaking in on the interstates:

• "Crisis of Islam: Holy War and Unholy Terror", by Bernard Lewis
• "Christ the Lord: Out of Egypt", by Anne Rice
• "Islam Unveiled: Disturbing Questions About the World's Fastest Growing Faith", by Robert Spencer
• "The Book of Isaiah", by God
• "Freakonomics: A Rogue Economist Explores the Hidden Side of Everything", by Steven D. Levitt, Stephen J. Dubner
• "Crossing the Threshold of Hope" by His Holiness, Pope John Paul II
• "Rebel-in-Chief", by Fred Barnes (book not scheduled for release until September)
  
• "Lincoln: A Life of Purpose and Power", by Richard J. Carwardine
• "The Conscience of a Conservative", by Barry Goldwater
• "The Quest for Cosmic Justice", by Thomas Sowell

Not a bad selection for the library of a city that went 3:1 for John Kerry in the last election.

Pardon Parental Pride...

...but I can't help gushing about my older (teenage) daughter's e-mail report from Tanzania a few minutes ago, informing us that she successfully reached the summit of Mt. Kilimanjaro just before dawn yesterday - the highest peak in Africa at a lung-searing 19,340 feet.

Do Not Keep Silent; Do Not Be Quiet

Shame on a reader who knows better than to throw chunks of raw meat to starving dogs (like me).
This story at Blue Crab Boulevard should get everyone's spidey sense tingling. Be sure to read the scripture it references after you read the punch line:

O God, do not keep silent; be not quiet, O God, be not still. See how your enemies are astir, how your foes rear their heads. With cunning they conspire against your people; they plot against those you cherish. "Come," they say, "let us destroy them as a nation, that the name of Israel be remembered no more." With one mind they plot together; they form an alliance against you...

Indoctrination Before Education: Training Little Marxists

Longtime readers know that I'm a huge fan of the Foundation for Individual Rights in Education - an outstandingly fair-minded and unwavering organization working on behalf of students and faculty victimized in the political correctness wars of college and university fiefdoms. Eductaion is a major leverage point for political change - something the left realized and capitalized on long ago. Anyone fed up with the GOP this year could do worse than to donate to FIRE instead.

What's just as deeply institutionalized however and arguably more difficult to combat is the political indoctrination of primary and secondary teacher candidates. Almost by definition its indoctrinees tend to self-select on the front end. They also have more to lose on the back end - an incentive to shut up, keep one's views to oneself and try to get along. Some of our regular readers and blogging buddies can relate, I'm sure.

This fine piece in the most recent City Journal spells it out: The innocuous-sounding code word "social justice" has come to replace the discredited "communist" as a label and rallying cry for those spewing radical, even violent Marxist visions for bringing down pillars of Western Civilization (e.g., individual identity, liberty and responsibility) carefully developed over milenia.

[Silicon Valley career-changer Steve] Head was smoothly completing all his math-related course work at taxpayer-supported San Jose State University. Then in the fall of 2003, he enrolled in the required “Social, Philosophical, and Multicultural Foundations of Education,” taught by Helen Kress, whose main scholarly interest appears to be “critical whiteness studies,” a noxious branch of critical race theory that posits that white racial identity is a socially constructed characteristic and must be confronted and purged to overcome America’s institutionalized system of white supremacy. The foundations course functions as a sort of military checkpoint to guarantee that every student who passes through toward a teaching credential has properly imbibed the pedagogies of multiculturalism, critical race theory, feminism, and, of course, social justice teaching.

The easy way out would have been for Head to spew back the expected answers on racial and gender oppression and move on, as most traditional-minded education students do. But something about Steve Head—a Christian and a libertarian—made him gag at the big lies and logical absurdities about American race relations and immigration issues that he was being asked to regurgitate. So he turned the tables and deconstructed the hegemony of anti-Americanism in the classroom.

In a sworn legal document, Head recounted that when his professor showed the class a videotape purporting to reveal institutional racism against immigrants, he responded by suggesting that most immigrants actually came here because they realized they would be better off, including benefiting from healthier race relations. Professor Kress responded that anyone holding such opinions was clearly “unfit to teach.” Head further infuriated the professor by suggesting that the class be allowed to read black social scientists like Thomas Sowell and Walter Williams to provide some intellectual balance on the issues of race and education.

Bottom line: Head failed the course. He's now suing under a First Amendment argument. The whole thing - while a bit long - is worth skimming for the other shocking anecdote it contains: a tale of unprosecuted and jubilantly unrepentent '60s Weather Underground bomber Bill Ayers' re-invention as a leader in secondary school curriculum development on a national level.

In a similar vein, the WSJ (subscription required) noted yesterday the selective coverage of President Bush's remarks on school choice:

When President Bush addressed the annual convention of the NAACP last week, the press focused on his remarks about the GOP's past relationship with black voters. No surprise there. But Mr. Bush also spoke about parental choice in education, another issue that concerns many black families with children in failing schools. What's more, the President's comments come amid a political effort by opponents of choice to undermine a fledgling school-voucher pilot program that's helping more than 1,600 low-income kids in Washington, D.C., get a decent education.

"An amazing thing about our society today is wealthier white families have got the capacity to defeat mediocrity by moving," said Mr. Bush. "That is not the case for lower-income families. And so therefore, I strongly believe in charter schools, in public school choice. I believe in opportunity scholarships to be able to enable parents to move their child out of a school that's not teaching." Somehow that passage didn't get much play with the press corps.

Finally, we have this thought-provoking, fact-laden piece at OpinionJournal by the controversial Charles Murray. Title: "Acid Test: No Child Left Behind is beyond uninformative. It is deceptive."

The War Behind the War Behind the War

I don't have much comment on this one except to point out the obvious: Iran, and their client/puppet state, Syria are orchestrating as well as prosecuting the war against Israel, Israelis and Jews pretty much anywhere. And as previously reported, Russia (aka, 'Gog') is thoroughly chummy with both. When U.S. forces transitioned from advisory to fighting roles in Vietnam it was a big cause for concern back home. No mention of Iran in the NY Times today.

Iranian forces posted to southern Lebanon have been aiding Hezbollah terrorists in their attacks against Israel, including helping to fire rockets into Israeli population centers... between six and nine dead Iranian Revolutionary Guard soldiers were brought in trucks last week into Syria for a flight back to Iran.

Jordanian officials tell The New York Sun that they're "100 percent sure" Iranians have fired rockets on Israel, and that the Syrian army has provided Hezbollah with intelligence information on possible Israeli targets, while Israel says Iranian soldiers' duties include watching over Iran's long-range rockets — which are capable of reaching Tel Aviv.

Hezbollah's representative in Iran struck a defiant tone Monday, warning that his Islamic militant group plans to widen its attacks on Israel until "no place" is safe for Israelis. [emphasis added]

It's not much of a stretch to presume that he means Brooklyn and Minneapolis and Jews in general as much as Haifa and Tel Aviv and those carrying Israeli passports. Under President Kerry, of course, we'd all have been sitting around happily sipping white wine and singing kumbaya because he wouldn't have done anything about Saddam - only the bad guys. Yes, that is a non-sequitor, as well as a turnabout from comments he made when Clinton was in office and it was presumed that this would all be President Gore's chance to prove post-Jonhsonian military muscularity for the Democrats once and for all.

Finally, some have asked why my more spiritually-oriented posts seem so at odds with the more political ones and couldn't I maybe write two separate blogs or perhaps get counseling for split personality disorder. Short answer: no split personality; the two are inseparable.

Longer answer: a continuing string of events in my own life lead me to increasing faith in the existence and active presence of the living God, part of whose truth is revealed in scripture. A close (or even casual) reading produces some spine-tingling parallels with current events. E.g., Ezekiel 38:5-9 (God talking through the prophet Ezekiel):

Persia, Cush and Put will be with them, all with shields and helmets, also Gomer with all its troops, and Beth Togarmah from the far north with all its troops — the many nations with you. "'Get ready; be prepared, you and all the hordes gathered about you, and take command of them. After many days you will be called to arms. In future years you will invade a land that has recovered from war, whose people were gathered from many nations to the mountains of Israel, which had long been desolate. They had been brought out from the nations, and now all of them live in safety. You and all your troops and the many nations with you will go up, advancing like a storm; you will be like a cloud covering the land.

Draw your own conclusions... but don't read the rest of the chapter (or the next one) if you're prone to nightmares. The eventual happy ending comes at a price.

The War Behind the War Behind the War

I don't have much comment on this one except to point out the obvious: Iran, and their client/puppet state, Syria are orchestrating as well as prosecuting the war against Israel, Israelis and Jews pretty much anywhere. And as previously reported, Russia (aka, 'Gog') is thoroughly chummy with both. When U.S. forces transitioned from advisory to fighting roles in Vietnam it was a big cause for concern back home. No mention of Iran in the NY Times today.

Iranian forces posted to southern Lebanon have been aiding Hezbollah terrorists in their attacks against Israel, including helping to fire rockets into Israeli population centers... between six and nine dead Iranian Revolutionary Guard soldiers were brought in trucks last week into Syria for a flight back to Iran.

Jordanian officials tell The New York Sun that they're "100 percent sure" Iranians have fired rockets on Israel, and that the Syrian army has provided Hezbollah with intelligence information on possible Israeli targets, while Israel says Iranian soldiers' duties include watching over Iran's long-range rockets — which are capable of reaching Tel Aviv.

Hezbollah's representative in Iran struck a defiant tone Monday, warning that his Islamic militant group plans to widen its attacks on Israel until "no place" is safe for Israelis. [emphasis added]

It's not much of a stretch to presume that he means Brooklyn and Minneapolis and Jews in general as much as Haifa and Tel Aviv and those carrying Israeli passports. Under President Kerry, of course, we'd all have been sitting around happily sipping white wine and singing kumbaya because he wouldn't have done anything about Saddam - only the bad guys. Yes, that is a non-sequitor, as well as a turnabout from comments he made when Clinton was in office and it was presumed that this would all be President Gore's chance to prove post-Jonhsonian military muscularity for the Democrats once and for all.

Finally, some have asked why my more spiritually-oriented posts seem so at odds with the more political ones and couldn't I maybe write two separate blogs or perhaps get counseling for split personality disorder. Short answer: no split personality; the two are inseparable.

Longer answer: a continuing string of events in my own life lead me to increasing faith in the existence and active presence of the living God, part of whose truth is revealed in scripture. A close (or even casual) reading produces some spine-tingling parallels with current events. E.g., Ezekiel 38:5-9 (God talking through the prophet Ezekiel):

Persia, Cush and Put will be with them, all with shields and helmets, also Gomer with all its troops, and Beth Togarmah from the far north with all its troops — the many nations with you. "'Get ready; be prepared, you and all the hordes gathered about you, and take command of them. After many days you will be called to arms. In future years you will invade a land that has recovered from war, whose people were gathered from many nations to the mountains of Israel, which had long been desolate. They had been brought out from the nations, and now all of them live in safety. You and all your troops and the many nations with you will go up, advancing like a storm; you will be like a cloud covering the land.

Draw your own conclusions... but don't read the rest of the chapter (or the next one) if you're prone to nightmares. The eventual happy ending comes at a price.

When Sport Mirrors Politics: While Europe Dithers...

I couldn't help watching yesterday's bone-crushingly difficult mountain stage in the Tour de France without reflecting on parallels with contemporary politics.

For those who missed it, here's the gist: soft-spoken, self-deprecating and personally likable but less-than-articulate American, Floyd Landis rebounded from a humiliating bonk and loss of ten places (from 1st to 11th) in the previous stage to utterly dominate this one.

What was most remarkable was how he did it: going off the front, from the outset, with no help but his own grit, focus, stategy and resolve - an audacious gamble to shake things up, shatter conventional wisdom and win. Starting to sound like anyone we know?

For the better part of three hours, the world was treated to the spectacle of a disorganized mob (aka, peleton) of mostly European riders dithering, debating and lazily peddling along, waiting to hear further reports on Landis' progress to see if he was really serious and truly capable.

He was.

It's a kind of strategic leadership and steady, individualistic perseverence we too often fail to notice in the torrent of daily headlines. 'Chester' reminds us in this TCS piece of how strategic this president really has been, and how - for the first time since the founding of Israel - someone is actually starting to change the dynamics of the Middle East and not just media perceptions of them. It's the prospect of actual peace, not just the word 'peace' on a meaningless document, as Howard Dean might have it.

UPDATE (Saturday afternoon): "I'm a person who works hard and never gives up. Otherwise, I'm just a human being." Floyd Landis, after gaining a 59-second lead in the Tour de France going into the final (and largely ceremonial) stage into Paris tomorrow (Sunday). I like it.

UPDATE (Sunday morning): Some thoroughly intelligent friends have e-mailed me with what amounts to a "hunh?" regarding the comparison I made in this post, tipping me off to the fact that I didn't do a terribly good job in making a connection that seemed obvious to me. Here's another attempt:

What Floyd Landis did in the Tour de France Thursday was to make a virtually unprecedented unilateral challenge to long-held conventional wisdom - particularly European conventional wisdom. And so it is with U.S. foreign policy in the Middle East under this administration. While (most) Eurocrats dither and talk, this president acts and succeeds - to the great consternation of most. (Who is he to act when we have not reached consensus with the Russians and French? Who is he to ride off the front with 120 mountainous miles still to go?)

Floyd acted by going off the front - seeing, planning for and then taking advantage of a narrow window of opportunity. As did Bush in the aftermath of 9-11 with a very specific (and highly strategic) attack on Saddam.

Landis made it clear he was out to win, not just muddle through, "try" and leave everyone saying "he did the best he could". And so it is with Bush. His vision of the Middle East is, well... visionary - not just about kicking the can down the street for the next guy and hoping for the best. And being visionary usually entails a period of time during which people think you're nuts and exclaim to anyone who'll listen that you can't get there from here. And so with Landis after his disastrous setback in Stage 16.

And speaking of setbacks: when you're in the spotlight and you have one, conventional wisdom about your chances for ultimate success swings wildly negative. One listens to such naysayers at one's peril. And so it is for this administration with every little hiccup in Iraq. A week of car bombs or a day of bonk in the Alps does not mean that the strategy is any less sound or the goal (tour win or peace, liberty and democracy in the Middle East) any further out of reach.

Landis' actions - whether he conceived of them this way or not - are likely to irrevocably change the face of this year's Tour and perhaps even the notion of what's possible in a cycling race of this magnitude. Those aren't my assessments; they're from the best informed commentators and observers of the sport. And in the Middle East, so it is with this president's policies.

Landis comes from a background of deep Christian faith that despite a retreat, still no doubt informs his world view (in any case, he doesn't make a big deal of it). Ditto 43. Inner strength matters a lot when the conventional wisdom is against you but you know your cause is just.

There's also the parallel between the corruption and back-room deals underlying France's and Russia's motivations on Iraq and the doping scandal that rocked the tour (again) this year. The de-legitimatization of key players helped clear the way in each case for someone with purer motives and tactics to emerge.

And finally, there's a tendency to jump on the bandwagon and claim that "we knew it all along" whem things finally go right. To claim credit and smile and pat the reviled leader on the back and say "we knew you could do it" - even when they were saying the precise opposite the day before. We're still a few years away from that with this president, but I'm confident that history books 50 years hence will do exactly that: outline the inevitability of the wise policy seen by the sideline kibbitzers only in hindsight.

At the risk of muddying the waters still further, the better reference point for both Landis and Bush is perhaps Teddy Roosevelt who famously remarked:

"It's not the critic who counts, not the man who points out how the strong man stumbled, or when the doer of deeds could have done better. The credit belongs to the man who is actually in the arena; whose face is marred by dust and sweat and blood; who strives valiantly; who errs and comes short again and again; who knows the great enthusiasms, the great devotions and spends himself in a worth cause; who at the best, knows in the end the triumph of high achievement; and who at the worst if he fails, at least fails while daring greatly, so that his place shall never be with those cold and timid souls who know neither victory or defeat."

Gearing Up and Choosing Sides

This is an admittedly incomplete and sweeping thought, but at a deep, intuitive level it feels like things are gradually sorting out in the global conflict that kicked off November 4th, 1979 with the invasion by Iran of U.S. sovereign territory (i.e., our embassy in Tehran) and returned to the collective consciousness on September 11th, 2001 (albeit with shocking brevity and blithe dismissiveness). Or, one could say, the conflict that kicked off in the Garden of Eden and came out on the world stage with Stalin and Hitler and Mao and Pol Pot and the giggling, murderous romp of the Vietcong through Saigon on May Day, 1975. ("Mayday", "911"... interesting resonance, that.)

The grey areas are getting less grey, while the convoluted justifications for calling all parties equal and pompously splitting the differences in the interest of temporary non-conflict are getting more and convoluted - their purveyors less shy about the transparency of their moral prostitution. If it made me rich and powerful, how bad can it be, really? Commentators through the ages have remarked on similar evil afoot in the world and been wrong about it reaching a climax, but eventually, we're told, the rot of humanity will raise enough of a ruckus to bring 'Dad' out to kick butt, take names and send us all home.

Quite a theory, KM. What makes you think that? A number of things - none of them definitive; none of them unique. This is only this week's collection of dots worth connecting - evil emboldened to smile and strut and convince the world to relax and stop getting up on a moral soapbox because it's really not so bad:

Tongsun Park's conviction on charges related to UN corruption in the Oil For Food scam. One wonders: have these people no shame whatsoever? No sense that what they do in the name of world peace is cynically the precise opposite from the very moment of the idea's conception? And is anyone here old enough to remember that this is the same Tongsun Park who slipped out of an equally severe indictment in the 1970s by "cooperating" with authorities? Who would ever think to let him near the seat of power again? Well, the former head of the UN, for starters.

Then there's the heretofore symbolic wisp of something much deeper that never quite died with Hitler. We saw it earlier this week when Spanish Prime Minister Zapatero donned a kaffiyeh. The fashion statement is far less important than what it represents and that is a long silent preference - unacknowledged even inwardly - among many in Europe to justify those who would slaughter Jews - any Jews - by any means available, the sneakier the better. It's a blind preference for the underdog no matter what. It's David and Goliath with morality reversed.

Then there's the patently obvious: the Iranians witnessing North Korean missile tests (and probably doing much more) - not at all coincidentally on the Fourth of July. The Axis of Evil is all in George Bush's mind. Really. If he hadn't said anything, they wouldn't be friends now. Riiiiight.

And finally, there's this - a splendid piece of writing from the most recent Vanity Fair about the Moscow club scene. It would be titillating if one weren't so thoroughly conscious while reading it that one is being enticed to a strange curiosity by a vision of hell on earth - a connection the author makes explicitly in case we fail to:

There's a reason you need a visa to come to Russia. Moscow has the best nightlife in the world. Leave etiquette and moderation to everyone else. Leave "the beauty of an hour" to the Russians, especially to those with money, those in their 30s, the last generation raised under the old regime, who can't stop toasting their good fortune, all of it with the fine style you read about in those novels the size of bricks. They'll crack your chest and massage your heart, and we'll see if you can keep up.

You could talk about it like it was a movie, and you still wouldn't make it halfway to the truth. Moscow is hell, and in hell you can have a great time. Like any other place, hell has rules. No pity; that's one of them. And so Stalin's boat isn't slowing down to let the king of the night come aboard.

This is a hell more insidious and attractive than crude stacks of skulls in the Cambodian jungle. Satan isn't stupid. It's a much smaller step from fine cognac on Wall Street and the New York Times Sunday Magazine over Bloody Marys. Pay no attention to the broken lives left in the wake of the party. This hell comes with candy coating. Just don't be surprised when a gun is pressed to your ribs and your body is dumped in the river. No pity. No love. Move along.

Just Explicit Enough: A Visionary Dream Fulfilled

I'll dispense (for now) with a long explanation for a long time away except to say that life in 'meatspace' has taken precedence in the best possible ways: summer activities, family, visitors, house projects, work, the honest-to-goodness start of a novel, and an inner peace that's curiously at odds with yet also inspired by the increasingly apocalyptic news out of the Middle East. More on all that later if anybody cares. Thanks, btw, to those of you who took the time to write and say you did. The thought that this blog has regular readers who miss their daily dose is oddly touching.

A startling anecdote from the weekend:

In 2004, my brother, two friends and I took a trip to Wyoming where one of those friends ('B') and I were to run a 100-mile race (the Bighorn Trail Run) through the mountain wilderness. 'B' finished that race; I did not. 'B' ended up running in the last mile to a dramatic high-place finish alongside my brother Ed, who cherished the moment and spoke about it often in the 16 months before he died. It was a remarkable and transformative experience for him in part because he couldn't really run after a severe ankle injury ten years ago. On that day, for some reason, he did - and virtually without pain.

On the drive back from that race (north to Montana), the four of us stopped in at the Little Bighorn National Monument (aka, Custer's Last Stand). It was a pleasant interlude in an otherwise frenetic and exhausting long weekend. Some pleasantly serendipitous if relatively ordinary happenings at that rest stop made it especially memorable for all of us.

Then, last summer (2005), in the middle of my brother's fight with leukemia - before it was clear he would lose it - the other good friend on that trip ('L') reported to me (almost sheepishly) a vivid dream he had had. 'L' is pretty much a "here and now" kinda guy. This was the first and only dream I can ever remember him discussing with me or anyone else. I know that 'L' was sincere in recounting the dream. He was not just trying to make something up to encourage me.

It boiled down to a strong sense that "the four of us will be together again at a big race".

Since 'B' lives in another country, thousands of miles away, that was a more remarkable thought than it might seem. We only see 'B' every few years, if that. Furthermore, by "big race", it was clear that 'L' meant another 100-miler. Those too are rare. 'B' may run as many as two a year. I've completed just one in my life, as has 'L'. In other words, the dream was several orders of magnitude more improbable (even assuming that my brother would beat leukemia) than saying, for example, that the local boys would all get together for a beer at the next 5K fun run down the street at the YMCA.

This past weekend was the first time that the remaining three of us had been together since that trip to Wyoming and visit to the Little Bighorn National Monument, aka Custer's Last Stand.

'B' had flown in to compete in the Vermont 100-Mile Endurance Run with 'L' and myself serving as 'crew' and 'pacer' (i.e., staying up all night to keep him going). On Friday night, with less than twelve hours to go before the start of the race the three of us, plus 'B's wife, had finally gathered at the house we would share for the weekend. As we stood in the kitchen trying to decide what to do for dinner, it was finally suggested that we wander up the street where - we'd heard - there was a good brew pub. None of us had been to it before.

Upon arrival, we discovered several tables outside in a pleasant little garden. Because of the heat and humidity, 'B' insisted we go inside where it was air conditioned. We walked in to find just one table available... for four... in the corner... right next to a HUGE picture of... Custer's Last Stand. (Like my brother, he didn't quite make it to 40 either, dying at age 37.)

Go figure. This is Vermont: not exactly the first place you think of for featuring paintings of politically incorrect military debacles in every two-bit watering hole.

We raised a toast, of course. 'B's wife made five...

What are the chances?

One could go through the exercise of surveying restaurants in the handful of towns that host 100-mile adventure runs to see which ones featured paintings of icons meaningful to the four of us and relevant to the only previous trip we'd been on together. Yet the exercise would be without point. The answer might be that there were none. Or several. It really doesn't matter. Similarly, one could put my friend 'L' under the bright lights and hook him up to a lie-detector and threaten his family if he didn't fess up to a big, cruel practical joke. That too would be pointless. I know he is honest. The set-up was too perfect for any human actor.

And as if to drive home the point that the dream really had been fulfilled and that my brother really was with us - in whatever manner one may choose to conceive of it - the great big in-your-face sign of fulfillment and reassurance (the Custer/Bighorn painting) was reinforced by two other, more subtle ones in the following 24 hours.

Just after we returned to the house from eating, 'L' (a semi-agnostic skeptic raised by a Catholic mom and a Jewish dad) went to set the clock radio in his room. You know the drill: set the time and then turn on the radio to test the volume and the station tuning. 'L' and I regularly engage in spiritual banter. My belief in a thoroughly divine and active, living Jesus Christ is always lingering at the periphery of those discussions, from time to time coming to center stage.

Down the hall, 'L' adjusts the radio: Click. Full volume: "God is good. Yeah, yeah, yeah-yeah-yeah. What if God was one of us? Just a slob like one of us. Just a stranger on the bus. Trying to make his way home..."

I haven't heard that song on the radio in two years. We had a good laugh. 'L' gave me one of those looks.

Then, in the wee hours of Sunday morning, as 'B' and I jogged and walked - often alone - down the remote dirt roads of central Vermont through the final twenty miles of his arduous run, we got to talking about Ed, as I knew we eventually would.

'B' looked up. "Did you see that?", he asked.
"What?" I replied.
"There: a shooting star - just ahead. Up there."

A shooting star... a brother, husband, father and friend that one former colleague described as "a prince of a man"... cut off at age 39... a star pulling 'B' on... once again showing him the way... through the final miles... as he had done in Wyoming two years ago. No busted ankle this time.

I looked up, searching for more. There were none. It was the only shooting star we saw all night. Just one... more than enough to know.

UPDATE: Sounds like I'm not the only one to reunite with deceased loved ones at big races.