My hero

Last night we went to see my nephew, Andy, graduate from City Year. Along with some 170 other young adults in Philadelphia, Andy performed 1700 hours of community service this year. He worked on a project called "Young Heroes", which runs a Saturday program for kids in middle school, where they learn about the social issues in their community and then work together to solve those problems through hands-on community service. Other City Year corps members do other kinds of community service, primarily in City schools. Seeing all those young people celebrate their accomplishments and hard work was truly inspiring. I know Andy worked extremely hard all year, and that it wasn't always fun, but I also know he will take the lessons he learned and use them to make the world a better place. Thanks, Andy, for being a wonderful role model, mentor to other kids, and a true leader.

After the graduation, Andy, Debbie, Garrett, and I continued our celebration at a nice little cafe in West Philly called Rx. The restaurant is in an old pharmacy at the corner of 45th and Spruce, which I thought was the source of the name. But according to their website, Rx is the abbreviation of the Latin word recipe. Whatever, the food is great. I started out with a lovely salad of organic mixed greens, sweet-spicy pecans, roasted peppers, and Wolf Creek chevre, with a light vinaigrette that allowed all the other flavors to come through. Following that, I had a delicious chicken dish: truffle-glazed organic free-range chicken with a very tasty Vidalia onion marmalade, and served with polenta and brocoli rabe.