Yesterday I was talking to my wife about our children—who, at 27 and 25, I admit are no longer children. Being the proud parents that we are, we were noting with wonder how they are identifying their gifts, building upon their strengths, and developing into fully self-actualized human beings. As we talked, however, we […]
Monthly Archives: July 2009
My Three Sons and the Mystic Power of 3
Posted in Uncategorized Tagged Alexander Dumas, fairy tales, fathers and sons, Three Musketeers Comments closed
Father-Daughter Separation Dramas
My wonderful daughter-in-law Betsy, in response to one of my posts about father-son relationships, began meditating about father-daughter relationships on her own blog. We agreed that, while the dynamics are different, in one way they are similar: daughters like sons must establish separate identities, a process that is difficult and often involves a struggle. […]
Posted in Uncategorized Tagged All the Pretty Horses, Charles Perrault, Cormac McCarthy, Donkey Skin, fathers and daughters, King Lear, separation dramas, William Shakespeare Comments closed
Literature about Health Care Reform
At present I am one of those liberals in a high state of anxiety about the prospects of Obama’s attempts to bring us universal health care. I find myself careening through the highs of hope and the lows of fear. I watch the political proceedings minutely, then turn away discouraged, then read some columnist […]
Posted in Uncategorized Tagged Emily Dickinson, George Eliot, health care, Hope is that thing with feathers, J. R. R. Tolkien, Lord of the Rings, Middlemarch, Old Ironsides, Oliver Wendell Holmes, politics Comments closed
On Elves and a Botched Love Letter
Since I’ve been writing a lot about the longing for lost innocence in the past few weeks, I’ll share a couple of personal stories about the subject. Included are a traumatic creative writing experience that drove me away forever from writing serious poetry again and a very strange moment in my courtship of the woman […]
Posted in Uncategorized Tagged adolescence, How to Treat Elves, loss of innocence, love, Morris Bishop, Tempest, William Shakespeare Comments closed
On Literary Names and Destinies
Reynold, “Portrait of Sterne” Just as I was born into a literary name, so were Darien and Toby. Before telling the story, I will follow up on the allusion in my last post to Laurence Sterne’s Tristram Shandy […]
Posted in Uncategorized Tagged fathers and sons, John Keats, Laurence Sterne, names, Tobias Smollett, Tristram Shandy, Upon First Looking into Chapman's Homer Comments closed
On Being Named after Christopher Robin
As I have been writing about fathers and sons in the past few posts, I shift today from my position of father to that of son and to the literary origins of my name. My father named me after Christopher Robin and recently told me that he envisioned having the kind of relationship with […]
Posted in Uncategorized Tagged A. A. Milne, fathers and sons, House at Pooh Corner, Winnie the Pooh Comments closed
Father-Son Conflict: The Comic Version
In yesterday’s post I began giving an account of a car conversation I had with my two sons regarding stories that explore father-son relationships, as well as my desire for a story in which fathers and sons collaborate to handle the world’s challenges. Darien, my older son, felt that the archetypal conflict as it […]
Posted in Uncategorized Tagged Alfred Lord Tennyson, fathers and sons, Henry Fielding, John Milton, Paradise Lost, Tom Jones, Ulysses Comments closed
Is Father-Son Conflict Inevitable?
I had an interesting conversation with my two sons yesterday as we drove them and my daughter-in-law to the Portland airport, marking the beginning of the end of our summer vacation. The conversation began with me wondering why there weren’t works of literature that accurately capture the kind of father-son relationship that I feel that […]
Posted in Uncategorized Tagged A Christmas Carol, Charles Dickens, Cormac McCarthy, Daniel Defoe, David Copperfield, fathers and sons, Great Expectations, Hamlet, Henry IV, Homer, Human Stain, Lawrence Sterne, Nicholas Nickleby, Odyssey, Oedipus, Oliver Twist, Philip Roth, Road, Robinson Crusoe, Shakespeare, Song of Solomon, Toni Morrison, Tristram Shandy Comments closed
The Greater Meaning of Family Gatherings
We have just finished up our Maine family reunion at the family cottage, and I’ve been trying to think of literature that deals with reunions. A book that comes to mind is Wallace Stegner’s fine novel Passing to Safety, which opens and concludes with a reunion in a New England summer home. Reflecting upon the […]
