The week in race in politics was a wild one with John McCain accusing Barack Obama of using race as a wedge issue and Obama continuing to deal with insinuations that he is both too black and not black enough.

What good is it to worry? Worry can take years off your life, turn your hair grey and make you gain weight. Yet we all do it, often far too much.

Randy Pausch, a professor at Carnegie Mellon University and a blogger, died recently at the age of 47 from pancreatic cancer. Where a passing such as this might usually go unremarked, Pausch inspired an outpouring of tributes because he was a "symbol of the beauty and briefness of life." As Douglas Martin writes in The New York Times, Pausch's "The Last Lecture" "inspired many to live with wonder."

And now for something different in this week in race and politics, let's talk about John McCain. Earlier this week John McCain spoke to the NAACP convention. McCain, who has not spoken to the group in previous years - following in the footsteps of President Bush who has mostly declined the group's invitations - focused on education reform while asking for the group's support.

I'm sitting in my hotel room typing this post on my laptop - not my full keyboard - trying not to mess up my manicure and trying to eat dinner that has finally arrived from room service without covering myself and the computer with crumbs. I turned down dinner invites and left a party of which I was a sponsor for this glamorous evening. And I'm really proud that I did.