Another night at Steak N Shake

I was at Steak N Shake all night tonight. My father and I discussed everything from our own families to the Iraqi War. I asked him what he thought about Emily applying to Harvard. That's right, I said Harvard. A man from church who's a Harvard Graduate School alumni gave us an application. His wife said to me, "we think Emily is a very special girl and we think she should go to Harvard." You can imagine my response. Something like, "That's awful nice, whom do think should pay for Harvard?" Well as it turns out, Harvard doesn't need my money. As far as academic requirements go, that doesn't matter much either. Harvard lays out no minimum requirements for GPA or test scores. So, what the heck? Why not apply to Harvard? I'll mention again that these discussions with my father have been much more pleasant since he stopped trying to figure out what's wrong with me and started talking with me. When he can say to my face that he hopes John Kerry wins, this is much preferable to being grilled with leading questions and innuendoes. We'll banter back and forth, as we assume the roles of either campaign manager. Kerry should say this, Bush should stick to that. Pretty soon though, I have to stop to remind him that I really do think Bush is a visionary and history will remember him as a great leader. He starts spitting up at this point. That's OK though, I still won't roll my eyes or sigh (Al Gore?). I tell him that I won't panic or commit suicide should Kerry win in November. I'm not sure about folks on the left. Their hopes and dreams seem to be dependent on political leaders. It's still somewhat humbling to me whenever my worldview crashes headlong into his. It's hard to express to someone who is not a Christian that I look at the world differently than they do. I look at history different, as well as politics, law, money; all things of this world seem strangely dim.