An Evening with Emily

For those of you new to the blog, Emily is my oldest daughter who is currently attending college for Mechanical Engineering. She has not only won awards for her writing but was the Salutatorian for her school. Before she decided Mechanical Engineering was her field she considered becoming a Journalist. Sure I published a book, but her experience in writing and her creativity has inspired me. Many of the things I write here or on other sites like Watch Blog my first thought to myself is, "how would Emily write this".

Politically she is more liberal than I am, and she does not share my Catholic faith or my belief in God though she has attended church with me more out of love and respect for me than a belief in a higher power. She comments here from time to time but her opinion of what I write is important to me. We don't get to spend as much time together as we used to because she is working this summer on her internship necessary for her degree and has a relationship and life away from my household. We still have dinner together a few times a week but tonight her boyfriend had to work and she came over and spent several hours here watching movies with me. First though she read what I had written at Watch Blog since she hadn't had a chance to read it yet or get caught up on what I had blogged about the past few days. She doesn't always agree with me, yes I raised my children to disagree with me politically hence my oldest, my only son being a Republican. However I was struck tonight by the realization that what I have done is create children that some are now adults that think for themselves. They do their own research, come to their own conclusions and are not afraid to either agree or disagree with me. They feel secure in the knowledge that even when we disagree we will still love and respect each other. If they agree with me it is because they have come to discover that on their own and not because they have been told to feel a certain way.

I grew up being the ultimate rebel the problem child that gave my parents hell. My children never did that, they were always honor roll students who expressed themselves but were alot more yuppyish than I ever was. I used to bemoan the fact that how could I have yuppy brainy children. Yet as they grow, I have discovered that perhaps the best gift I did give them was the belief that no matter what path they chose I would support them and that the ability to think for themselves even if I disagreed has made them what they are today.

It may sound silly but when Emily tells me she agrees with me when I write articles like I did at Watch Blog about Christianity and Islam it means more to me than I can describe. Tonight she told me that reading Daniel's blog from Iraq affects her, at times reading his site makes her sad, I didn't know she was reading his site, until tonight. For my own daughter to feel as she has expanded her own horizons because of this blog is beyond description. I realize that while at times real life really is a challenge? I am very blessed. So Emily? Thank you.