This winter I have had to adjust to the reality that I lost my father in the first week of 2023. While those closest to me were aware of this, it is not something I have talked about widely in my day-to-day existence. I did, however, post something on Facebook, which I will share here:

My dad, Ed Gallagher, left us on January 4, just a few weeks shy of his 93rd birthday. His transition was peaceful and pain free, at home, surrounded by his family. My heart is broken, but I am grateful we had so much time together in this world. And it was a blessing to have shared lengthy conversations with Dad in his final days. He reckoned he had “lived a great life.” As the son of immigrants from County Donegal, Ireland, the arc of his life was in many ways the ideal of the American Dream. And he genuinely cared about things like equality and justice. I could never possibly repay my Dad for everything he did for me and the rest of our family. He was and always will be the most important man in my life. Dad, I am so proud to be your son. I will love you forever.

I think about Dad many times every day. There are particular events, like the State of the Union address or Australian Open tennis, when I find myself looking forward to hearing his take, and it suddenly hits home how much I miss him. Support from family, friends, colleagues, and neighbors has been wonderful in easing my sense of loss a bit.

While no other news from this winter can compare to that development, here are a few quick highlights of what has been going on in my world:

• After a two-year hiatus due to the pandemic, the school resumed its annual DC field trip for students in the government program. In addition to meeting with a handful of U.S. Senators and Representatives, as well as others in and around government service, we had a lovely alumni event at the Army and Navy Club, wherein our kids got to spend time with Washington-area grads from all walks of life. This edition was as good a trip as we have had in the many years I have been involved with it.
• I bought an upright digital piano at the end of last year. Now I have to spend some time working my way past the hunt-and-peck approach to getting music out of it. I am happy that it is MIDI-capable, which means I can connect easily to Garage Band and other programs on the Mac or iPad to get truly creative.
• I have been active with online coursework since the start of the year: Tuesday nights studying Chinese history at Stanford, Wednesday nights studying the American Tradition at the University of Chicago, and Thursdays tackling the Middle Ages (also U of C). That’s a lot of time in class (each of which runs either two hours or three and a quarter) as well as a lot of reading, but keeping busy has been good for me the past two months and I have been enjoying (most of) what we have been exploring.

What I’m Reading