Didn't end up doing much writing yesterday--hung out with the nieces and nephews instead. This was after talk of war with Mom. We discussed Patrick Henry (he was not the first to say that men cry "Peace! Peace!" when there is no peace--he got that line from Jeremiah) and World War II.
I took Irish bookmarks to Z and E who were in the middle of a backgammon game. Z talked me into taking over for E, who had lost interest. Z, at six-soon-to-be-seven, is very much the Big Brother of E, who at five is very much the Little Girl. So when after a quick restating of the rules (been a long time since Aunt Jelle has played backgammon), I triumphantly took one of Z's pieces out of play, he looked at me with his most serious, sorrowful expression. He had expected something so much better from me, I suppose. "It's not about capturing, Aunt Jelle," he chastised. "Really little kids think it's about capturing, but it's not. That just wastes time."
He was right, of course. And of course at his next opportunity he took one of my pieces out of play. I parroted, "It's not about capturing!"
He smiled. "Well, you did it first!"