She sat on my lap and she looked at me with those deep brown eyes that demanded truths only a 9 year old could ask for.  She said "Why do you have such big muscles?"  I said "These are the same muscles my father and my brother had.  The same muscles that my grandfather and his father had. They had big muscles too" 

I did not say that these are the same muscles that my father and brother used to pour cement all day long, building dams in Central Idaho.  I didn't say that these same muscles my grandfather used to log trees in the dark forests of Oregon so that the men returning from past wars could have homes for their families. 

I didn't say that to her because these muscles are different.  These muscles today are not the muscles that are building a nation with wood and concrete.  These muscles are much happier to hold her balanced on my knee.  Tomorrow these muscles will propel her in a canoe down the river so she can see the Eagles, the Osprey, the Great Blue Herons and the river otters.   They will lift her from the bow of the boat so her feet won't get wet.  They will skip rocks she finds on the beach so she can count the skips and comment on the distance.

But then, giving it some thought, I realize these muscles are building a nation after all.