Oh, Dad! The Atlantic Monthly for June is a treasure-trove, and I recommend that you pick it up. The cover story "How We Would Fight China" is fascinating. Sean would particularly like it, but it would be very useful for those of us who think that we did the right thing when we went into Iraq.

I read that article yesterday, and then Carol and I went to TWT last night, which is the weekly, community youth group event that our church sponors. We are volunteers. About half way through the event the "large group" breaks up into "small groups", and we lead a small group. The topic was "the future": where will you be in ten years? where would you like to be? God has a plan for you, do you want that plan and, if so, how can you be sure to live within it? (Jeremiah 29:11 is the key verse; it is scripture to which I seem to return again and again.) As I thought about where I would like to be in ten years, I thought about the article on China.

Maybe I would like to be in China in ten years. I am pretty sure that when the current lease runs out (which will be in 9 years), I will want to do something else. (That assumes that the firm will continue to enjoy its moderate success until then.) Why not go to China and teach something? Having just finished teaching the seminar at the UM Law School, I discovered again how much I enjoy teaching.

I'm not sure Carol sees herself in China in 10 years. But, then again, she didn't see herself in Miami either or helping run a small law firm or moderating the Board of Deacons or dozens of other things with which God has challenged her. She is amazingly adaptive, patient, and smart.

But maybe this is just another of the enthusiasms that seem to afflict me periodically. I am, however, looking into Mandarin studies. Check out this student's essay on his first year learning Mandarin.