We all know the plays I’m talking about, right? The characters are usually family or very close friends and they enter the play facing hardship or strife. Conflicts may be aired but the True Meaning of Christmas finally gets through and everyone remembers the Reason for the Season and makes up in time to unwrap presents. Cue the Figgy Pudding and Curtain, we’re finished. Well, those don’t do it for me. I watched “Father Knows Best” episodes when I was a kid and those happy families on the stage only added to my confusion and neurosis. I’ll take the dysfunctional Plantagenet family in “The Lion in Winter” for Christmas instead. They show me I’m not insane. James Goldman’s”The Lion in Winter” is a fictional take on the real life Plantagenet family and their problems in 1183. The patriarch, Henry had been King of England nearly thirty years by then and time was catching up to him. It was time to reflect on his accomplishments, (he reigns over England and controls a good bit of France) think about retirement and (to quote Lear) ” shake all cares and business from our age, conferring them on younger strengths.” At least that’s…
My mom could not be predicted. When I was in my early 20’s, she called up long distance (an expensive activity) and ordered me to read a certain book. Now. She heard about it from Gladys who got the recommendation from Jill and now that Mom had read it, I had to. This made no sense. Mom knew one or two women named Jill but neither of them usually recommended books and there was no Gladys I could think of. Mom explained to me she had received a letter from one of her favorite writers, Gladys Taber, where Ms. Taber had verified her friend, Jill, revered a book called The Daughter of Time. Based on that letter, mom borrowed the novel from the library and read it. Now, she ordered me to do the same. This story might have ended there because I had developed the habit of ignoring Mom by then but my roommate, Stephanie was working at the college library so I asked her to pick up a copy of the book while she was on shift. When Stephanie got back that night, the book was in her hand. She looked up at me and said, “I’m…