Whitman boys.

I know, I know, I have lately promised that this blog would revolve around issues of parenthood, of family, of the roles of family and parenthood in community. But forgive me this trespass: I have concerned myself with John Roberts. Not because of who he is, or what he has done, or what he may come to mean over the course of the next thirty or so years. See, what John Roberts signifies, I think, is that some people are better.

Once I thought I was better than others. Smarter, at least. And what adulthood has done for me, or to me, is to correct that notion. Sure, there are people who are smarter than others. I may even beat the curve. But in the circles in which I circulate, I’m not the smartest. We’re a long way from North Salem High School. Not only are there people who are smarter than me, there are smarter people who also work harder. It’s humbling.

So I have watched John Roberts with interest. My impression–one shared by most lawyers who have paid attention to theconfirmation hearings, I think–is that he utterly overmatches the poor senators tasked with interrogating him. I won’t improve on Dahlia Lithwick:

Here’s a man long accustomed to answering really hard questions from extremely smart people, suddenly faced with the almost-harder task of answering obvious questions from less-smart people. He finds himself standing in a batting cage with the pitching machine set way too slow.

Dahlia, of course, is another example of someone who has genuine talent, in addition to brains. That’s the hard lesson for someone like me. I can be good at what I do. I may even enjoy it (and yes, I do, very much). But I don’t bring that ineffable brightness to my work that the truly special and gifted people do.

But T and I have the Gus on the horizon. That gives me a new opportunity to shine, a fresh chance to show my stuff. Now, I understand I won’t have a good idea of the results for a good eighteen or twenty years. I get that. But that gives me time to develop and hone my technique.

I’ll let you know how things turn out.

Soon, at least. I mean, that’s our hope.

shamelessly ripped off from dooce.com

So of course it have not been blogging, see below. But I continue to try to be a discriminating consumer of the best the web has to offer. I’ve updated my links (at right) to more accurately reflect what I’m reading these days.

David Rees continues to be the best satirist out there (yes, including Jon Stewart and Tom Tomorrow) mainly because he doesn’t shy from shoing his naked fear that maybe we’ve really lost. You can tell it is hard for him to write sometimes because he can’t see the monitor through his tears of rage and despair.

I’ve acquired a taste for blogs that celebrate family. Dooce. Untitled Life.

I read Slashdot regularly.

I have discovered RSS feeds, which makes it easier to keep up to date on most of the sites I visit regularly.

I listen to podcasts from BBC’s Radio 4, downloaded from iTunes.

I read actual books, printed on paper. The library has a wonderful new face on the web. That new library director is worth every penny.