Down by the Riverside

You can't step twice into the same river, because other waters keep flowing is the "weeping philospher" Heraclitus wisdom that has wended its way through the ages. (H is also sire of the saying that "War is the father of all things..." so you can tell he was a fun guy to chill with.)

And what is true for one is also true for two: father and child. Still, there is a natural interest in following in one's father's sandalprints. So, we note today that Amber Martin — after being clear that dad wouldn't compete — is running for the city council spot once held by her dad Harry. In an intriguing bit of campaign rhetoric, she does note her low income as possibly appealing to voters at the same time her campaign bio mentions that she works for her dad. Something about the river seems a bit murky but it's not so easy to pinpoint it exactly.

Nor is it clear whether young Myco Coker thought he was honoring or disgracing papa C when he took the latter's wheels out for a bit of a gambol. MC claimed to be helping out with local traffic in his fancy ride — by pretending to be a deputy sheriff &mash; but the fact that he was pretending to be his dad, an actual deputy sheriff seems to have had little positive affect on the the judge who has grounded him for the foreseeable future.

Honor, disgrace and anger are also ingredients the recipe Sheryll Cashin proffers in The Agitator's Daughter, her look at the river in which her dad fished: "As a teenager, I seethed with anger about [my father's] priorities. As I approached middle age and Dad approached his 80s, I simply wanted to understand the origins of his altruism and share my journey in a book that might motivate others."

As she describes it, she inherited his passion, but as with every child, it did not come to her in the exact same "blind" form and has taken her to a different river.