My mother always felt I should be practical with regard to my career. Everything else was up to me, but she wanted me to be secure.

I doubt practical would be the first word to jump to the minds of people who know me, were you to say my name. And yet, it is perhaps the most indelible legacy my mother gave me.

She gave it to me without ever forcing me. Just the single consistent message that you should be able to earn a living with a respectable profession.

I think the world is full of artists who received the same message and bucked. I bucked, but never as much as I made out. At my most overtly oppositional, I still received A’s, B’s, and C’s. At my most irresponsible, I joined the Army – because I realized that I was wasting my family’s money partying in college and not passing all my classes. So even my rebellion carried a tinge of my mother’s pragmatism.

It’s the struggle between the my impulse, for impulsivity, and the ever present thought in my head, of what will come if you choose this? This struggle has formed who I am. My struggle to balance these two drives informs my daily life. It has encouraged me to look closely at my values and processes. It has driven me to look closely at the values and processes of others.

My mother’s greatest legacy to me may be life of internal struggle. My mother’s greatest gift to me is the courage and curiosity to face that struggle and grow with it.