On Wednesday, my daughter Keegan crashed her bike in Berlin, Germany, while going to work. Germany has designated bike lanes all over the city, but she hit a pot hole apparently, and flew over the handlebars into a busy city street. She was lucky a car didn’t hit her. But she did sustain some injuries that sent her to the hospital in an ambulance. She fractured her shoulder and hit her head pretty hard. She looks like she went ten rounds with Mike Tyson. I didn’t know faces could swell that much. I’m not sure she didn’t break some bones in there also because she is having a hard time opening her mouth and has a spectacular shiner. They didn’t check for that so when she goes back to the doc early next week they will check, I’m sure. Apparently it was an incredibly painful injury and Keegs, who doesn’t mince curse words when things go wrong, (it’s a family thing , I think) let fly quite a few. Luckily, people came to her rescue and her boyfriend, Robin, was at the hospital in less than 20 minutes. I am eternally grateful. That was two days ago. I contemplated going over to Berlin, but she said she and Robin had it covered and in small apartment confines, I wondered if I would just be another stressor. Hard choices. I’m on my way to Talbott Street Arts Festival right now in Indy and worried she needs me more than she realizes. Our kids grow up and become self sufficient, as we hoped but when thing like this happen, they revert for us to being our babies again. This is our world as we know it today. Families are all over the map. I remember when growing up that my grandparents and aunts and uncles were a mere car ride, but no more. When I went to college a very long time ago in the South from New Jersey, I saw that my parents let me have my space, it’s probably why I am such an avid traveler like my daughter Keegan. I also remember a horrible car wreck during that time where I was in the hospital with concussion and a broken jaw. My mom didn’t come and I really needed her, if just for moral support.... I’m wondering if my daughter is feeling this way. It kind of haunts me. It’s not like going on a car ride anymore. This is the dilemma that many of us have these days and it is what it is. That doesn’t make it any less hard. So if you see me at the show in Indianapolis this weekend, I might be a bit preoccupied. Don’t hold it against me. My booth is 114.