I sit on the porch, listen to the thunder and watch the rain. Lying next to me, asleep, is my three-year-old daughter. She has been fighting a horrible fever the past few days, and my life has been thrown out of whack by worrying about her, and not getting enough sleep. She seems to be over the worst of it now, and it was probably just one of those childhood illnesses, but still it hurts to see her suffer and still I worry how bad she has had this fever.

Meanwhile, a friend is sitting by the side of her father. He has been waging a fierce battle against cancer and it appears as if the battle is nearly over. Another friend has traveled out of state to visit her aunt who has just gotten out of the hospital.

I think about my blogging, and how people have told me not to bury the lead. Have I done that here? What is the lead anyways? It is something about these moments being pieces of the patchwork quilts of our lives. It is about when you get right down to it, caring for the people around us is what matters. There is the old saying that all politics is personal. It is these moments that form, or at least should form, our political sensibilities.