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I should set up a new label and call it 'writing class blues'. I don't want to confuse anyone, it has been a good class so far, but now I have an assignment whose topics I am slow to get into. Along with the subject matter comes the second of a one-two punch: it is a comparison/contrast essay. That means I have to pick two of the five assigned readings.

Let's see, there is the woman whose family, of Jewish descent, grew up in the south (why would anyone who is not a "good ol' boy" willingly live there?) and hid their Jewish heritage. It is an interesting essay, titled Split at the Root, but I don't want to tackle something of that scope. There's the Chinese woman whose family has a nameless aunt -nameless because they don't want to acknowledge what happened- who got pregnant by someone who was not her husband. The villagers came in the night and killed all the livestock and ransacked the house while the aunt's family huddled in the middle. Auntie sort of got even. She committed suicide by drowning herself in the village well. That was their drinking water supply.

The essays are not my usual cup of tea, but a good test of a budding writer is his ability to handle something that is not his element.