A Mother's Judgement

When it comes to assessing success or failure in life, it's interesting how often individuals measure themselves against what their mothers believe -- even while often rebelling against them.

This is probably particularly true in cultures that are very family-focused, such that of the Chinese.

An example can be seen in a poem written by Chinese-American poet Chen Chen who is gay while his brothers apparently are not.

"I am a gay sipper [a cautious person], & my mother has placed what's left of her hopes on my brothers," says one line of Chen's poem "Self-Portrait as So Much Potential."

"Beautiful sons," the poem ends, referring to all but the poet himself.

By clicking on the name of the poem above, you can read the entire short piece as printed in a recent edition of the New York Times Sunday magazine.

I recommend it.

The Independent Lives of Fictional Characters

I think it is natural that when people read a book, they wonder to what extent writers have cast themselves, family members, friends or acquaintances as characters, perhaps with an agenda in mind.

Some friends who have read my novella, "Manhattan Morning", have expressed surprise to discover that neither I nor anyone else they know appears therein. The main characters -- Dan, Marcy, Gloria and Rev. Saddleford -- are inventions I set in motion and who then, to at least some degree, took on lives of their own during the writing process.