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，她帮我在一个大纸箱里堆砌出一个梦幻王国。我们用镜子当湖泊，用枝条当树木，我还编了一个童话故事让洋娃娃们演出。另一年夏天，她鼓励小弟托尼去实现挖地洞一直挖到中国的梦想。她开始找些和中国有关的书念给小弟听，小弟每天在房子边的空地上挖洞，偶尔会发现母亲偷偷埋入的筷子或藏着签条的签饼。

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.
大弟弟休更喜欢冒险，才学会走路就推开通往露台的门，高兴地往三尺厚的积雪里钻，直到被母亲发现为止。
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.
母亲爱这个家与我们全家人，但难免觉得自己的生活受限制太多。当我们年纪稍长时，母亲就开始选修大学课程，虽然一直没毕业，学分却堆积如山，从逻辑学到儿童发展之类的科目都有。
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.
看到别人尤其是孩子们受到不公正对待时，母亲会愤愤不平。由于个人的切身经验，她知道许多孩子明明没有错，却一生下来就比别人矮一截或遭人歧视。她童年住在加州时，目睹日裔小孩公然遭受歧视，看到学校里的白人学生天天对他们冷嘲热讽。
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.
父母两种价值观给我的政治信念留下两种烙印父母的价值观并不一致，我夹在两人中间长大，使得我的政治信念打上了两方面的印记。性别隔阂也出现在我家里。母亲基本上是民主党人，但帕克里奇以共和党人居多，所以她并未声张。父亲则是死硬的保守派共和党人，并以此为荣。