December 2, 2004

Dear Mr. Bush,

My dad has this theory that the reason time seems to move so quickly as you get older is because your perception of every day--of every hour, of every minute--gets shorter with every passing moment. The way he explains it is this: When you're five years old and a year goes by, it feels like it lasts forever because, in a way, it does. After all, when you're five, a year comprises one fifth of your entire life. But when you're 30, a year is all of a sudden 1/30th of your life and so it can't possibly feel as long as it did when you were five. When you start thinking of that not in terms of years, but in terms of weeks or days or seconds, you can see how time can slip by so quickly without even hardly noticing.

And even though I know this and believe it to be true--true in the way that simple theories often are--today I sit here shocked that in just one short month, another year is going to end. A year that, honestly, feels like it's just beginning.

Say good night to Laura for me,

Dan