We've all been there. It doesn't make it hurt less. But there isn't a better representation of all that is good than a family dog.

I cleaned out my car. There was more stuff than you might expect. And it was a study of humanity.

The late-night drive home along FM roads took me back to childhood holiday road trips. Passing farms and fields with small frame houses, many bare save for one or two light strings and maybe a plastic manger scene. It took me back.

Much of the culture from south of the Mason-Dixon Line had come north with us in our rattly old cars and cardboard boxes of modest belongings, which meant racism traveled as well as coon hunting.