> What would I do if I suddenly found that I had a sibling
that I had not previously known about?

I was put in this situation at about the age of 10, when my
mother casually mentioned my half-sister. My dad had a
daughter who was 10 years older than me and lived an
ocean away in England. No one had thought to say
anything about her before that.

I was shocked. And sad, because when I was 10, England
was far enough away from the US that I was certain I would
never meet this woman. Since then, I have met her (several
times) and developed a relationship with her and her
husband. But there's something really strange about the
situation still - she's my sister, but I don't know that much
about her, and due to the distance, I will probably never
know her as well as I'd like.

Also, she had never known our father until she contacted
him when she was in her early twenties. It must have been
interesting for her to find out she had two younger sisters!


> There is that other arguement, about how space flight is
dangerous, but when compared to war, it's a fairly safe
endevor. A ride on a space shuttle is probably safer than a
ride in a HumVee through Baghdad.

I was thinking about this last night as I watched Apollo 13
for the first time. Yes, the idea of losing three astronauts is
terrible, but more than three people die all the time in
accidents - car wrecks, fires, plane crashes. I think it's
interesting that when it's a space flight situation, the
country gets more excited than when it's soldiers in Iraq or
strangers on the freeway.

Luisa