Flipping through this week's issue of Time, I was struck by an item in the letters section. Responding to a recent article by war correspondent Michael Weisskopf, who lost a hand in Iraq, reader Karen Howard of Redmond, Washington wrote:

"I very much appreciated Weisskopf's article and started to cry when I read about Specialist James Fair, the young man who suffered a brain injury, lost his eyesight and both hands. He weighs on my conscience because I have not reconciled myself to my responsibility for his injuries as an outspoken supporter of our liberation of Iraq. I have work to do on that, and it continues to keep me awake."

That was really important for me to read. As an outspoken critic of the war in Iraq, I need to know that Howard and others who share her views lay awake at night worrying about how to do the right thing. I don't generally attribute such thoughfulness to that perspective, so Howard's letter gave me pause.

It should also give us all hope. Hope that as we lay awake with our worries, we are at least together in our restlessness. Our insomnial letters-to-the-editor and blogs-on-the-web edge us closer and closer to common ground.

And so I find myself posting this, my first GWH blog, at midnight, my cup of mint tea nearly finished and my cat already sleeping on the desk beside me. Not sure what to do about the war in Iraq, or about a plenty-whole-host of other concerns, but worrying just the same. And knowing that Karen Howard, who might be as different from me as night from day, is out there in Redmond, Washington worrying right now, too.