Second-oldest son David arrived for a short visit from Virginia today, armed with his laptop, so I could see his films that I’d not been able to get to work on my computer at home – I had one of the old batch – based on the Knight’s Tale from The Canterbury Tales and a new one, made this summer.

I’m not a mother prepared only to see the best in what my children do. Who could, after 23 years and five children plus a teaching career, plus a writing career? No one does anyone any favors by murmuring, "Veddy nice" even when a piece could use some time on the chopping block.

That said…Veddy nice. As you recall, The Knight’s Tale was the one I sat there and "watched" like an idiot, thinking that my son had done this really creative abstract work, when actually what I was viewing was the Windows Media default spirograph squiggles. The real thing is much better than the squiggles, and, I’ll say, rather shockingly so. I was impressed – it had terrific mood, interesting imagery, and, most surprising of all, some rather good acting.

What I’m glad to see in him, as in any young artist, is that he’s thinking big. He’s not making movies about a 20-year old college kid in Virginia who manages a Burger King. Not that this would be a bad movie. Not that, he actually  might be making movies about that kid, underneath it all. No, he’s got ideas, and he’s trying to work them out.

I’m hopeful. I can stop worrying about that one. For a while.

Now, if only Mom could do so well in her creative endeavors….