I met Cathy Seipp at one of my first blogger dinners - I was still deep in my pseud, and TG had to introduce herself as "Mrs. Armed Liberal". We went to a booksigning in Brentwood and then off to dinner at one of my fave little Italian places on San Vicente with the cream of the 2002 blogosphere.

I counted myself awed and lucky to get to hang out with such clever, smart, interesting people. And that night, as on many later nights, Cathy Seipp was the center around which the group revolved.

Tonight, Cathy is gravely ill with cancer, and per her daughter Maia, in the hospital receiving palliative care.

That night, after she frisked me (it was in the shoulderbag, Cathy...), Cathy drilled me on my casual assumption that all thinking people were in favor of gay marriage, and when she did that, she didn't only make me think about gay marriage as an issue, but all the other casual assumptions I offhandedly made about what people did and should think. Cathy gave me a zen slap to the head, and it was one of the biggest favors anyone ever did for me. I wrote a post about it... "Why I Support Gay Marriage, and Why I Will Never Be Angry At Those Who Do Not"...but I don't think I really explained the gift - the perspective shift - that Cathy gave me that night.

When I was trying to push Spirit of America into a broader role, the people I reached out to for help started with Cathy, and Cathy reached back to help someone she knew just a little bit - because that's what she seemed to do a lot.

Think good thoughts for her tonight, and for her daughter, and for her loved ones and friends and those - like me - who she reached out to help. If you want to do something for her, reach out and rearrange someone's perceptions and open their eyes to the notion that reasonable people might think they are wrong.

I can't imagine a more fitting memorial - for Cathy, or for anyone at all, to be honest.