My mother sent me a message yesterday in which she mentioned how much she admired the Bush family. It made me wonder whether I shared any of her admiration for them; I thought about it on the bike ride into work today, and off and on all day long. I think the answer is yes; I do admire some of them for certain things. I once read, for example, that George Sr. had cultivated a lifelong habit of writing lots of short letters to people: notes of thanks, general appreciation, encouragement, etc. The story said that he always spent his time on airplanes writing notes like this. I do genuinely admire that in a person. I've never been good about it myself.
