Overnighter with Aidan

For his 10th birthday, each of the boys got an overnight trip with dad. Eamon and I went to Cooperstown, Brendan and I went to San Francisco...and last month Aidan chose a snowboarding excursion.

The best part of hanging around with a 10-year-old, and letting him direct things, is that you get to think like a 10-year-old. This hotel is awesome! They have cookies in the lobby! There's an ice machine! Can I ride on the baggage cart? (Uh, sure.)

But the best amenity for Aidan, by far, was cable. He mandated that we have a Friday night stay, so that we could watch Star Wars: The Clone Wars. We ordered double cheese pizza and had a TV party. It was a blast. Earlier we had gone on an afternoon hike and followed some bear tracks through Donner campground, so our soggy shoes were drying in the sink.




On Saturday morning we hit Donner Ski Ranch early. Aidan was new to snowboarding but made huge gains in the first hour. I stayed on skis. Watching him enjoy himself was almost as much fun as riding the baggage cart.

The Ripple Effect: Tina to Dafi to Jeta

I read an article about this social research that found we each have a statistical impact on the lives of about 1,000 people, most of whom we don't even know. Obesity, heart disease, voting, happiness, smoking.....our choices on these affect the people we know, then people they know, then people they know. And vice versa.

The ripple effect extends to altruism too. I was thrilled to learn yesterday about another ripple emanating from a kindness that Nancy did 10 years ago. For no better reason that it seemed like a good thing to do, she helped a young Kosovo war refugee named Tina get a scholarship to St. Joseph's University.

Embracing Tina turned out to be a remarkable investment. First off, we love her and she has enriched our lives. Plus, she's a superstar. She parlayed the SJU experience into grad school at Princeton and now works in DC at the World Bank.

Maybe the proudest I've ever felt to be an American was standing next to her dad Raghip at SJU commencement as the national anthem played. Raghip doesn't speak English but that didn't matter. Here was a guy who was forced to whisk four girls and wife to safety in Montenegro while an ethnic cleansing burned their town. Having endured the horror of war and the refugee experience, still living through the grinding poverty that hasn't let up in Kosovo, he was standing there in 2005 watching his daughter collect a diploma in the land of opportunity.

Now for the ripples. Tina's been working to get her younger sisters the same opportunities she got. Dafina started school in Pristina but Tina helped her transfer to George Mason, where she's a junior.

Now the unbelievable news that Jeta, the youngest, has been offered a Presidential scholarship at Villanova. Full ride, with a mighty ripple assist from Tina and Dafi. If you were VU and you saw what those two have accomplished, you'd believe in Julia (Jeta's nickname) too.

Deniza is college-age and doesn't yet have her opportunity. But knowing how the ripples are going, I have no doubt that her work will pay off too.

It will be wonderful to watch these young women mature and pass on the ripples more and more.

Tracing it backward, it didn't start with Nancy. She got rippled by her brother Jim, who in 1999 was working for the UN in Kosovo and met the family. Raghip worked for him and proved himself a good worker and a good person. So the ripple effect started with...himself.

Which was exactly what the social study noted: the research found that, when you are generous, via the ripple effect it is you who ends up benefitting. Karma? Grace? Whatever you call it, it's inspiring.

Remembering Big Bob

The only Saints fan I knew, back before they were winners, was my cousin Big Bob. Never did figure out why he chose the Saints, but he did. Here's a picture of him that I took in the Grand Canyon. Lost him a couple years ago and I think of him just about every day. Miss you, Dude.

The Inspiration

Here's a nice picture of Mom and Dad. We lost Mom to lung cancer in May 2008 and she's the inspiration for me organizing this pool. Which cracks me up because she was the one always asking me, "Now tell me again: how does this work?" I was introduced to squares and reverse raffles and such by her twin Uncle Johnny, who also taught me life lessons such as, "Stroh's spelled backwards is Shorts."