Change

The theme for the summer, in case you've been hiding in a cave somewhere, seems to be change. In fact, the Selden/Gysens now own the copyright on change after the summer of '08--new house, new marriage, new dad, new kids, new last name for at least one of us. And when the Obama campaign has a question about change, they contact us. (We're trying to get them to understand what changes, exactly, they ought to be hoping for, with little success so far.)

But when it comes to change, probably the biggest changer, in some ways, is Jonathan. In just a few months, Jonathan has gone from being a fairly consistent boys' size 14 to . . . I'm still determining his size. And if it weren't for the addition of Henry to the family, he would now own the title "tallest in the family," having decisively taken that one from Katie (and those of you out there who know just how tall Katie is are laughing your heads off right now).

Between the end of May, when I bought Jonathan dress shoes for his eighth-grade graduation and the wedding, and mid-August, when he got new school shoes, his foot grew from a size 5 1/2 to a 7. His voice also seems to have dropped an octave or so. In a super-major change, next week Jonathan heads off to high school--which will probably introduce changes that none of us have even thought of yet.

But the changes are going beyond the physical. With the help of a man around the house, Jonathan has learned to mow the lawn. (I know--Why didn't she have him mowing the lawn? This single mom hired that done; I didn't even own a lawn mower.) He's clearing his dishes without being told and putting them in the dishwasher. I noticed he made his bed today, and neither Henry nor I were here to tell him to do it.

And, like the Democrats, we hold out even more hope for changes in Jonathan--the especially good maturing kind. They will come in time, I'm sure.

So yes, America, there is hope for change. And some of those changes might even be a good thing.

*picture by Kathleen Selden