Interacting with little kids is so cool, because you can make their entire existence joyful; and you know that they will not remember the exact experience, so you're only creating joy to improve their life for a time. Which is awesome.
I side with Bergdahl. I am glad the verdict was not more jail time. This man was held captive for five years by the Taliban. To come back to your home country after that, and then be sent to jail would be downright unAmerican.
Period.
There is a lot of talk and discussion about differences over the past year, and amongst it we forget how similar we are. Every American (nearly) believes each individual - however errant - is allowed their own opinion.
That we get to express those opinions, and cannot be jailed for them. I think this is our collective deepest held belief as a country. Ever the quacks (insert whoever you think they are) get their own opinion. In some ways, it's nice to see oddballs and think: God bless them...
....but, I'm mostly glad that's not me.
When you speak the same language as someone, especially if you're away from your own country for a bit, and then you hear the sounds of something you speak, is a major bond. But it's hilarious when you then start talking to that person, only to realize you have nothing in common.
I've done that, all excited to speak about a book I saw an American reading. I opened the convo with enthusiasm, only to have a three minute, awkward talk. It was like, well, see ya.
Being open to mystery and major - especially cosmic - possibilities opens your thinking to everything. I've been thinking about the Cosmos a lot for a while, and what's so amazing about the infinite space is that we never know.
As we're going on in our daily lives, we might just get a signal. It could happen.
Speaking of signals, one Cosmologist was saying that sending a rocket, even unmanned, on a continuous track, is a way better idea that radio (or any other) signal. The logic is that if we send radio signals out to listen / transmit, we'd really have to be spot on in terms of right place, right time; but, if we send a rocket (projectile) anyone that ever sees it will know: there's someone/something else.