December 28, 2006

Life Goes On

President Ford died, as I'm sure you know by now. He seemed like a genuinely good man, which is a rarity in the world of politics, but it is hard to feel sad for the passing of a man of his age who had a good and active life.
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Aside from the normal family togetherness and cookie-eating that accompany the holidays, I've also been doing some reading. I started one of my books for next semester, hoping to get a jump-start on the overly-packed course load that awaits me. I may be mocked for being a super dork, but at least I'll have it done.

I also started Erik Larson's Devil in the White City, which is pretty awesome.

Besides this, I've written up my first-ever academic CV...hoping to land a pretty major internship for the summer. If I get it, more details will be forthcoming, but not for several months because I won't know until at least April. It involves the government, and you know how timely they are with anything that doesn't involve collecting our money.

The only other thing I've really been doing is playing Ms. Pac Man. It's one of those old Atari-looking joysticks, and it's giving me carpal tunnel. Well worth it.

Posted by Jenelle at December 28, 2006 01:07 AM | TrackBack
Comments

Well, at least Ford will get his presidential dollar now:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Presidential_$1_Coin_Act_of_2005

Posted by: Harvey at December 28, 2006 07:40 AM

I don't think it's so much a matter of feeling bad for Ford. I think some people feel bad for the same reason they were all torn up over Princess Diana and other celebrities. Somehow these people make us feel connected, and in their deaths we seem to be even more so by the experience of shared grief, whether appropriate or not.

The other thing I think drives that is the sense, at least for me, that time is catching up with all of us. I sat there yesterday thinking, wow, I was 13 years old when he became president. I remember being naive enough to think that Nixon was innocent because he was the President of the United States, after all, and I found the whole experience very disillusioning. I felt Ford really did kind of ease us through the shock of it all, just by being a seemingly OK, average guy you could sort of trust. Naivete dies hard.

Posted by: Rev. Mike at December 28, 2006 08:47 AM