Every so often during the school day, Cummings would suggest a walk to get both her and Alice out of the house and planned that the walk would be a time to review concepts they'd been discussing in classes. Educational topics would be reviewed, but other subjects came up as well, wrote Cummings. "On these hikes, we've talked about our criminal lack of closet space, divorce, the enviable hair of Golden Retrievers, religious differences and how to handle them with relatives over holiday meals, my inability to remember to bring a bottle of water for our hike and the larger issue of autonomy (which means Alice can remember to pack her own water-bottle), the death penalty, the likelihood of our adding a French Bulldog to our family, the electoral college, and countless other things," she wrote. "It should be noted here that it was Alice walking me through the workings of the Electoral College. Again."
