Mom's heavenly dreams, a child's earthly desires
Barbara Brotman of the Chicago Tribune adds to my endless ruminations about motherhood and personal fulfillment:
When Dr. Laurel Clark blasted off into space on the shuttle Columbia, one person wasn't thrilled about it.

It was her 8-year-old son, Iain. "He was not happy about his mother going up," a family friend who had talked with the boy at a party two days before the mission told the Associated Press. "He said a few times, `Why does it have to be my mom?'"

He will surely ask the question many more times.

His mother, a flight surgeon and Navy commander from Racine, Wis., was one of the seven astronauts who died Saturday when the shuttle broke apart. The astronauts collectively left behind 12 children. Clark, 41, was the only mother among them......

Clark's son didn't want his mother to leave for the two-week mission. "Would you give up something you love to do?" she asked him.

His reply was not recorded. But for most of our children, if that something meant even a slight chance that their mother might not come home, the answer would be yes.

Our children have their own priorities. They don't care if we are challenged or exhilarated or serving humanity; they just want us to be there.