TITLE: Home Alone
AUTHOR: Eugene Wallingford
DATE: June 23, 2008  3:56 PM
DESC: 
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BODY:
I have been home alone with my daughters for the last few
days.  It's always neat to have the chance to talk with
the girls over an extended time, because they do say some
amazing things.

Over lunch a few days ago, we were talking about classes
at school.  I had been telling them about
<A HREF="http://www.maa.org/devlin/devlin_03_08.html">
   Lockhart's Lament</A>,
which I had just started reading.  (More on that later.)
Our conversation turned to art class, and how some teachers
don't seem to understand what it means to create art.  One
teacher always told the students to keep things simple,
because then they would get done faster.  My younger
daughter couldn't hide her exasperation.  "She doesn't
understand.  It's not about fastest; it's about masterpieces."
That bit of wisdom reminded me why I know she will do good
things in her life.

My puffed-up pride didn't last long.  The next day, in the
course of a conversation I've already forgotten otherwise,
she told me, "It's not that you're <EM>old</EM>, Dad; you're
just <EM>too old</EM>."  That's too much truth for me.

Sometimes the girls like my relatively advanced age.  Over
the weekend, they pulled my old
<A HREF="http://www.trivialpursuit.com/">
   Trivial Pursuit</A>
game off the shelf, and we had several hours of fun.  I
love that they've already read enough in their short lives
to be able to play the game pretty well, and that they
enjoy spending an evening or two trading questions and
answers with their old dad.
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