The city where we live - Northfield, Minnesota - has as its motto, “Cows, Colleges, and Contentment.” I took this photo of our two contented cows last August. Our son is about 8 months here, our daughter 4 and a half years.

I was recently tempted to use the word “father” to describe the process of caring for children as a father, but then an obvious conclusion dawned on me: the word more typically means begetting children, not caring for them. The dictionary has both meanings of the word in its definition, but clearly the begetting usage is much more common.

The dictionary has both meanings for the word “mother” as well, but mothering in common usage means caring for or raising children; there are even connotations in “mothering” of over-caring for children.

And so I’m left with the gender-neutral term “parenting” to describe what I spend so much of my time doing with my two children. I fathered them each once, I parent them until they are grown.

I continue to be encouraged by the rapid pace at which bike sharing is spreading across the world. Now the City of Minneapolis hopes to develop the largest bike-sharing program to date in the United States: 1,000 bikes at 75 kiosk locations starting this spring.

Users would pay an annual fee of $50-$75 to use the system. Each kiosk would have 10-20 bikes. An article in Downtown Journal had this to say about the program:

The bikes proposed for Minneapolis were designed by Stationnement de Montréal, which is the city of Montreal’s parking authority. The agency is launching a bike sharing program in Montreal next spring and it beat out six other companies to take the Minneapolis job.

The bike’s front-wheel movement creates an electrical charge that automatically powers lights at the rear of the bicycle. The chain is covered, and all of the gears and brakes are internal to the hubs. Bikes feature a unisex heavy-duty frame and handlebars, and a front-hanging basket. A broad seat is designed to be quickly adjustable.

One bike kiosk would have about 20 bikes, and bikes would be removed from docks by using small key cards. To ride with no extra charge, bikers are asked to return bikes to a rack within about a half-hour of taking them out. Average trips are expected to take riders one–three miles. The self-service bike docks would be powered by solar panels and they would be movable — advocates say the flexible design is a key improvement over the huge bike sharing program in Paris, which has bike stations entrenched in the street. Most of the docks would go into storage over the winter.

Montreal’s bike-sharing system was named to Time Magazine’s list of the 50 best inventions of 2008 and it has been praised in The Bike-Sharing Blog, so it appears that Mineapolis has chosen wisely.

See also articles in the Star Tribune’s Roadguy blog and at Twin Cities Streets for People.

Something that I did not expect to see in my lifetime has occurred: the citizens of the United States of America have elected an African American to be their next president. In choosing Barack Obama over John McCain, Americans have taken a historic step away from our country’s horrendous treatment of Africans. Obama’s election is a redemptive act that cleanses some of the stains left by slavery and racial discrimination.

I was not sure Americans were ready to vote for a black man, and I thought that racism might play a decisive role in defeating Obama. I am greatly encouraged that my fears were not realized.

It’s difficult to overstate the importance of Obama’s victory given our history of enslaving and exploiting Africans. Even after the slaves were freed following the Civil War, whites continued to discriminate against them. The Jim Crow laws prevented African Americans from enjoying rights that should have been theirs, including the right to vote. Empowered now with the vote, African Americans have voted in record numbers in this election, and they can look forward to an Obama presidency.

Just minutes ago, Senator McCain gave a gracious concession speech that emphasized the need for Americans to work together to solve the significant problems that our country faces. I hope that can happen, and I hope that Barack Obama will provide us with the leadership that takes us there.