Daughter and her family were here for whole month! Wow! One thing we did was to go out in the dark to see the stars. In Amsterdam no one can see the stars. The Netherlands is the second most densely populated country on earth: the lights of the cities wash away the skies. The children, ages 12 and 9, had never seen the Milky Way.

As we were driving out into the dark countryside in California, I recited for the children the ancient wish:

Star light, star bright
First star I see tonight
Wish I may, wish I might
Have the wish I make tonight.

Alexander, age 12, said, "can you write that down?" So when we stopped I found a little pad of paper and a pen and printed it out for him.

We were there a while before it got dark enough, but when the first star came out he stood a little aside with the paper and read it softly aloud, looking down, and then up at the sky.

For all that he is becoming a man, he is still a child too.

When we were cleaning his room at the end we found the little piece of paper, which had been folded up. I said, "I want that unless you want it." He said, "I want it." He solemnly folded it up again and put it in his pocket.

May he have the wish he made, whatever it was, and everything else too.