Grown-Ups

Two completely different posts about completely different people. But it's just so refreshing to meet grown-ups. First, VDH lunched with Our Rummy recently:

In the usual Washington script, an administration official who resigns usually becomes embittered, and then signs a contract for an expose book about his former colleagues—or at least goes on 60 Minutes for a tell-all, ‘they, not me, did it’ interview.But not quite all. I recently had lunch and spoke at length with former Secretary Donald Rumsfeld for an afternoon. He was cheerful, upbeat, without visible bitterness—and extremely busy.

Doing cool things, too. Investing in micro-businesses in Afghanistan. Creating software government archivists will find useful at his own expense. Working on a scholarly--not nasty-- memoir.

What struck me in the long conversation with him was the absence of anger or bitterness about his resignation. And unlike Gen. Sanchez who has proclaimed Iraq essentially lost, Rumsfeld was full of praise for Gen. Petraeus, and complimentary even of those who were his critics.

I think over time, given his leadership in restructuring the military, and overseeing the removal of the Taliban and Saddam Hussein, that history will be far kinder than the present convenient writ that he somehow was responsible for the 2003-6 turmoil in Iraq. In any case, there is no question that he is a man of integrity and willing to let history judge his service to the country. The United States was lucky to have him—and will not forget the pictures of him out in the crowd, with smoke everywhere, on 9/11 as a corner of the Pentagon burned.

Quite. In an entirely other --but still heroic-- vein, comes this from Danielle Bean, my favorite domestic blog, not intending the label to be condescending, but merely descriptive. You know how I'm tired of our culture's perpetual claim of stress, stress, stress and astonished how many professed Christians go along with it and are always "overwhelmed" by ordinary daily tasks. She takes 8 kids to get flu shots all by herself:

Go ahead — ooh and ahh. Make a big deal of it. Tell me how hard that must have been for me and that you don't know how I do it. I'll let you. But just between you and me?

It wasn't that hard.

Brava, Bravissima!

Here's my one and only secret: I have accepted my life. Embraced it, even. With all the little bumps and bruises that come along the way. I go with the flow now and the only thing I am in awe of is how I ever managed when I fought against it.

I am broken in. Grown up. And astonished that it feels this good.