For Tricia

There are many non-verbal ways to tell someone how much they mean to you. You could do something special for them, write a nice letter, or get them a small personal gift. Writers often do this by dedicating a book to someone they love or to whom they are especially thankful. I recently came across a very interesting book dedication. It read:

For
Mary and Nora
who continue to astonish me
with their resilience, patience, and love.

Such nice words. So what is so surprising about this dedication? I found it just behind the title page of the text Research Methods: The Concise Knowledge Base. I can think of many books of which I'd love to have dedicated to me but I'm not so certain the list would include a research methods textbook. Is it enough just to have dedicated a book? Does the actual book make any difference at all? Would you want to show your wife and daughter just how much they mean to you by dedicating your latest book, The Origins of Nazi Genocide: From Euthenasia to the Final Solution, to them. Just imagine...

To my loving wife and daughter
without whom The Origins of Nazi Genocide would never exist

A few  pages beyond the dedication is an About the Author page. This is where we learn that Dr William Trochim, author of the research text, is "a professor in the Department of Policy Analysis and Management at Cornell University, and is a faculty member in the graduate fields of education, human development, and community and rural development. Among experimentalists, he is known for his work in quasi-experimental alternatives to randomized experimental designs, especially the regression discontinuity and regression point displacement designs." At the very bottom of the page it reads "He does all these things for the loves of his life - his spouse Mary and his daughter Nora."

Wow, they must feel so warm and fuzzy inside to know that it is becuase of them that he has "extended the theory of validity through his atriculation and investigation of the idea of pattern matching."

This all really made me wonder what I do for my family to show them how much I love them. I thought maybe I should start making more of an effort. Having seen the light, I decided to plan a hike for Tricia and I to do together. We could share something we both love doing and have some alone time. I found just the hike for us in the Upstate at Jones Gap State Park.

To ease Tricia's mind I failed to mention that the trail we would be hiking was listed at "strenuous." After a three hour drive we showed up around 6pm and still had to hike four miles to our campsite. This was when I found out it was actually rated as "VERY strenuous." I never knew a trail could climb so quickly in such little time. After about fifteen minutes, with heavy packs on our backs, we sounded like a couple of chain-smokers trying to run a marathon. Much to our dismay, we looked down and saw our car only about two or three hundred yards below us.

After a while, though, we adjusted to the terrain and did our best to laugh about it. I promised, many times, that we were now at the top of the mountain. This, of course, was always followed by yet another grueling climb. Two hours and ten pounds of sweat later we were sitting on a fallen tree as the woods began to grow dark. We were more than a bit concerned that we weren't going to find our campsite before we lost all light. The chances of staying on the trail by flashlight didn't seem too promising given that the trail was somewhat difficult to track in daylight.  Normally I would have suggested that we could just set up the tent right where we were but there was nothing even remotely resembling level ground anywhere near us.

So we trudged on. And on. And on.

Finally, about eight thirty we came across the campsite. We were very relieved. We quickly set up camp, brushed our teeth, and hopped into our bags. We hadn't eaten dinner (due to some other poor planning on my part) but all was good.

The next morning we woke up early and headed back down, taking another path. While not as tiring, going down was almost as difficult as going up. Still, it was a truly great trail with some amazing views. In our two days we didn't see a single other person until we returned to the park. For hours and hours all we heard was the sound of distant birds and a stream running mostly parallel to our path.

When we finished we were exhausted but quite happy. This had been no simple stroll through the woods. We felt as though we had really accomplished something. And Tricia wasn't even mad that I hadn't mentioned to her how hard it was going to be. She knows I love her. And I don't even have to "develop a multivariate form of structured conceptual mapping" to remind her.