I have a second cousin who has led an active and interesting life. Today he has a website on which he writes a short political essay pretty much every day. The point? He and I would disagree about every possible issue of contention, from war and peace to chocolate versus white milk. I won't even go into the details, except to say that his intellectual world and mine would kill each other if we could have them meet for a morning duel.
I do read his website now and then, just to remember vividly how much I disagree with him. It is obvious everywhere that people's politics do not cohere with brothers and sisters, but this is a stunning example of how bloodlines do not run true where ideas are concerned.
(By the way, his website is beautifully designed and easy to read. Our grandmothers were intelligent women.)
(BTW, on another side of the family, my grandfather's, I have a 2nd or 3rd cousin who is Georgie Anne Geyer, the newspaper columnist. She wouldn't even know it, though.)
