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One summer, she helped me create a fantasy world in a large cardboard box. We used mirrors for lakes and twigs18 for trees, and I made up fairy-tale stories for my dolls to act out. Another summer, she encouraged my younger brother Tony to pursue his dream of digging a hole all the way to China. She started reading to him about China and every day he spent time digging his hole next to our house. Occasionally, he found a chopstick or fortune cookie my mother had hidden there.
有一年暑假，她幫我在一個大紙箱里堆砌出一個夢幻王國。我們用鏡子當湖泊，用枝條當樹木，我還編了一個童話故事讓洋娃娃們演出。另一年夏天，她鼓勵小弟托尼去實現挖地洞一直挖到中國的夢想。她開始找些和中國有關的書念給小弟聽，小弟每天在房子邊的空地上挖洞，偶爾會發現母親偷偷埋入的筷子或藏著簽條的簽餅。
My brother Hugh was even more adventurous. As a toddler he pushed open the door to our sundeck and happily tunneled through three feet of snow until my mother rescued him.
大弟弟休更喜歡冒險，才學會走路就推開通往露臺的門，高興地往三尺厚的積雪里鉆，直到被母親發現為止。
My mother loved her home and her family, but she felt limited by the narrow choices of her life. She started taking college courses when we were older. She never graduated, but she amassed mountains of credits in subjects ranging from logic to child development.
母親愛這個家與我們全家人，但難免覺得自己的生活受限制太多。當我們年紀稍長時，母親就開始選修大學課程，雖然一直沒畢業，學分卻堆積如山，從邏輯學到兒童發展之類的科目都有。
My mother was offended by the mistreatment of any human being, especially children. She understood from personal experience that many children—through no fault of their own—were disadvantaged and discriminated against from birth. As a child in California, she had watched Japanese Americans in her school endure blatant discrimination and daily taunts from the Anglo students.
看到別人尤其是孩子們受到不公正對待時，母親會憤憤不平。由于個人的切身經驗，她知道許多孩子明明沒有錯，卻一生下來就比別人矮一截或遭人歧視。她童年住在加州時，目睹日裔小孩公然遭受歧視，看到學校里的白人學生天天對他們冷嘲熱諷。
I grew up between the push and tug of my parents' values, and my own political beliefs reflect both. My mother was basically a Democrat, although she kept it quiet in Republican Park Ridge. My dad was a rock-ribbed, up-by-your-bootstraps, conservative Republican and highly opinionated to put it mildly.
父母兩種價值觀給我的政治信念留下兩種烙印父母的價值觀并不一致，我夾在兩人中間長大，使得我的政治信念打上了兩方面的印記。性別隔閡也出現在我家里。母親基本上是民主黨人，但帕克里奇以共和黨人居多，所以她并未聲張。父親則是死硬的保守派共和黨人，并以此為榮。
