Danel D. play the violin. The same age as my
son David who plays the guitar amazingly,
he was just as amazing on the violin. He had
begun at the same age which David began at.
I first saw Daniel at the sound check. I was impressed then, and I noticed his professional confidence and cockiness, cockiness in a good way. He reminded me of my son. When I spoke to him at the end of the night, he was very humble and sweet.
I posted videos of him performing on my
son's web page and my own. I felt that Daniel was a part of the new humanity that I
am always talking about. He was one of
the bright stars of the future to me.
I am writing a novel which I admit to have slacked off on because of writing being hard on my eyes, and the last episode I wrote was a bit sad and I did not know where to go from there. Meeting Daniel made me start thinking about my novel once again, because the young man who represents one of my sons in the story is named Daniel. I suppose the people in my novel are universal.
I had begun to think a lot about the mother in American Boys and wondered if we would get along if she were a real person or is she too much like me or too different? Would I feel inferior to her? Would she feel inferior? Would we be of different worlds? I could totally relate to her kids, because they are from my imagination as she is as well, but they really are my kids in representation and so are their friends. I feel I even know her boyfriends, but she herself is an enigma to me, ironic I know because she came about from my writing.
Mainly American Boys is about the young men and a few young women as well, but mostly the males and their problems. As I have said before, had I had daughters I may have written a book called American Girls. I realize that young women are soldiers and do everything young men do now, but I still think many problems men and women have are different.
For example, when a young girl becomes pregnant like I did when I was twenty, the father or boyfriend is faced with new complications and challenges. In my case I would have had the baby either way. A young man is faced with an innate feeling of needing to provide even if the 'baby mama' has a job. For example I was working in a women's clothing store at the time, but the winters were part time and although I could support just me, I do not think I could have supported myself and a child, although when we were separated for eight months when my first child was three, I did support myself and my son by singing and playing guitar in night clubs.
I guess I am just saying that it is one example of a possible challenge, fatherhood. I recall that my ex-husband was having trouble sleeping when we had a new baby.
He had trouble with commitment and I cannot get inside his head. Plus that was years ago.
One issue that presents itself in my novel to do with young men and their problems as well as teenagers, is the problem of being able to go to college. In my story the character Daniel, the older son, gets to go to Berkeley School of Music in Boston because the mother's parents are rich. I wondered if this really made sense, because her parents being rich, I doubt she would really be struggling like me. I guess I got envious of my own made up characters, because my son wanted to go to Berkeley School of Music in reality. We did apply, but we could never afford that.
I was impressed that Daniel D. had gone to Julliard in New York after going to The Art Institute in Charleston, since he is from my state. I told my son this to inspire him, thinking perhaps David could go to The Art Institute.
Young people can go to public state college with a grant for undergraduate studies which I did get for my son.
Another problem is underage drinking and the prevalence of drugs, which cause young people to slack off in school. Single parenthood is a problem too, like I was, because you do not have the help and support of another parent to enforce rules and structure. When a father is absent or has another family like my children's father did, it is hard not only for the kids, but for the parent taking care of them, or trying to.
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