apple juice

In short: we are being brainwashed with fear and it makes us worry that everything we do as parents may be putting our kids in danger. That’s why we judge other parents so harshly, and why we keep our kids cloistered like Rapunzel. Don’t get me wrong. As founder of the Free-Range Kids movement—a group of people who believe in giving kids more freedom and responsibility—my philosophy is not to throw kids out of the car (sorely tempting though that may be at times). But Free-Range parents do believe that kids are more capable and competent than we give them credit for. And that, after teaching them basic safety, they need some freedom to develop as smart, happy, responsible humans. Not crazy freedom. Just the kind of freedom we had, back when parenting decisions were not the stuff of national news.

from: Time to Stop Judging Other Mothers and Ourselves by the author of Free Range Kids

As far as I’m concerned the only people who get to judge my parenting are my parents… and my kids, when they are 18.

Welcome to my new feature. Picture of the Day. I will guarantee right now that I won’t update every day. But I’ll do my best. I guarantee it.

had a great weekend in NYC. my first trip there! it’s going to take more than just a couple days to explore.

had a great time exploring with matt, and new friends lauren, melissa and cara.

we were definitely on the same wavelength when I said “I just want to get a sense of the place” and they brought me to this event:

so, so much more to see and do, and in response to the question “did you do x, y or z” the answer is no.

although we did walk the brooklyn bridge

and we did duck through times square…

and although nyc did stoke the urban fires inside of me…

i still love mpls.

I’m very excited to introduce our daughter Emilia.

She was born at 2:14am, December 2nd, 2008.

This is pretty amazing.

man, I don’t know, but this photo brings tears to my eyes:

November 4th, at the Lincoln Memorial in Washington DC

(borrowed / stolen from kotte.org… he is a great source of all things internetty)

About four and a half years ago, I drove down to chicago to help my sister look for an apartment. We were driving all over the north side with this guy from apartment finders who was an absolute riot. Patrick was his name. (“Look dude, Daley is straight gangster” he would be yelling over the roar of the wind in his topless jeep wrangler as we drove obscenely fast through the narrow and car lined streets of various neighborhoods with names that end in the word Park. “You know what he did. He took bulldozers down to meiggs field in the middle of the night and tore up the runway.” Andrea and I exchanged looks. “Straight gangster!”)

Anyway, i’m seeing political signs everywhere. everywhere. it was crazy. OBAMA! they said. “Who’s this Obama guy”, I yelled up to Patrick. I don’t remember exactly what he said, but it was something to the effect of “a black dude who all the rich white college kids are voting for”. “Are you going to vote for him?” , I asked. Something to the effect of “hell yes” floated back over the wind.

I got back home and told a friend of mine, in sort of an off-hand comment, that Obama will be the next President. My friend ticked off various reasons why he would not be the next president. Hilary, his race, his name, being three of them.

We’ll see, I said. Later on that year, after the fateful address at the DNC, I posted here… Obama.

Why do I bring this up? Not to tell everyone how awesome I am. It is to point out how truly awesome this moment is. I think every phrase describing the metoric rise that Obama has made is already cliche, but I was at a conference today for educators in the Upper Midwest. Every single presenter I saw today made reference to Obama’s election as a defining moment in American history. Two grown men said that with tears on their faces they had moments of clarity while watching his acceptance speech.

This is not just a win for liberals, democrats, african-americans, or young people. I really believe that Obama’s election will usher one of those points of singularity in American history. We will re-focus our hopes, dreams and sense of national purpose.

just two more days of this nonsense.

on a side note, there is an unwritten rule about teachers telling students about who they will be voting for. i suppose that many parents would be upset at the idea that teachers are indoctrinating young minds with liberal ideas.

in my one and only class, i have juniors and seniors. and last week, they asked me, point blank, who are you going to be voting for, Mr. Colianni?

let’s back up a second and look at a couple of things. I have an Obama sticker on my car. I have another in the window of my office. they already know who I’ll be voting for.

and yet they’ve asked. and so after some “ahhs” and “umms”, I stated that I’ll be voting for Obama.

bad move. a ruckus erupts. moving. towards. chaos.

seizing the opportunity, they turned to the other teacher in the room, whose room I share. “who are you going to be voting for?”

“last time I checked, it was a secret ballot”, he replied with a smile.

i have so much to learn.