Forum / Mother

Ann Bogle
Jul 03, 10:54pm

My mother is a consistent reader at 83. She supports and pursues the Arts as an appreciator of classical music, theater, and visual art, especially painting. She is informed to an astonishing degree--she ought to have served as a legislator or political appointee--in local and regional and general politics. She is a 1950s Phi Beta Kappa graduate in sociology. Her interest in human social behavior and her influence in expecting me to be practical has restricted my imagination in fiction writing. Her social reserve yet natural approach to living keep her own desire to discuss personal affairs in check. My reserve is not in check. I confess, I confide, I challenge. Due to her influence, creative nonfiction and short essay emerged in my writing, though my background and training are in fiction writing and poetry.