At lunchtime on a spring day last year, Joe Biden was at his desk in the West Wing. When the door opened, the Vice-President stood up and stretched. He appeared to be in mid-thought. It was a busy weekI was there to talk to him about Iraq, Ukraine, and other dramasbut when I asked what hed been thinking about at his desk, he beamed. A First Communion, man! It was coming up that weekend, in Delaware, and Biden was heading home to his vast, inseparable family. He said, I look around at my sister, and a lot of my peers, and younger peers with children who are getting out of college, and theyre scattered all over the universe. Ive really been lucky. My oldest son, Beau, is attorney general, so he lives a mile and a quarter from my home. My other son, Hunter, lives literally a mile and a quarter from the residence here. His daughter Ashley went to college at Tulane, and, for a while, he feared that she would settle down in Looziana, he said, drawing out the vowels. Fortunately, she married a Philly boy. He said, Every Sunday, when were home, we have dinner, you know. Its been that way for twenty-five years.