Alas, Columbia

[rowanf]

Russell and I got up this morning at 5:45 to go see if we could see the streak of shuttle passing overhead at 5:52 this morning. It was too overcast but we waited hoping to at least hear the sonic boom. Eight minutes later over Texas the shuttle and seven astronauts - six Americans including two woman and an African American, and one Israeli (whose entire family was waiting in Florida to welcome him home a hero). There are things that really do seem at once too much to bear and unimaginably distant. The blessings of all the Gods upon those who are lost and those who are left behind.o