One of the coolest things in the world is to have a conversation with my children. Last night, Nick called me from St. Paul, where he's buried in snow and occasionally steps out to participate in the Iditarod of traffic in the Twin Cities. He and I got into a long discussion about the likelihood of life on other worlds. Nick mentioned the life that scientists find in the extreme temps of the ocean floor near lava vents. I told him that, in my observation, there is a tendency toward life and growth. I believe that if the basic building blocks of life are present, it's just about impossible for life not to form. Once life forms, I believe that organisms do what they have to do to sustain and reproduce, but generally not much more than that. There are those organisms though that push toward thriving. They are, by nature, dominant. And then there are those that just don't quit existing, such as Nick's example of the very recognizable Trilobite. At the end of the hour-long call, after going in and around and through a lot of it, we both had to go. I miss having him around. | 
