Is it Enough?

Joseph Krumgold 

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So I have a confession to make.  I rarely, and I mean maybe one out of every 50 times, read the about the author.  It's just a part I'm not particularly interested in, it's what you write not who you are that interests me at this moment in time (although I'm sure most authors are wonderful people with lovely lives).  I made an exception  for Joseph Krumgold author of ...And Now Miguel.  First of all the title starts with an ellipsis which is something I had never seen before and I found it very intriguing-it made me want to read this book.  Secondly his life is fascinating: he was the first to win the Newbery Medal twice (his first was for Onion John), he started working in Hollywood writing screen plays and documentaries, he's lived all over the world, and now he lives in Italy where where he works on films.  Lesson learned: maybe I should read the about the author-or at least skim it

So about ...And Now Miguel.  It's the story of a boy growing up and all of the struggles that come with growing up.  Miguel articulates the restlessness that you feel when you're not really a baby, but you're not a grown up yet either.  You don't know what you are and you don't know when it will end.This is how Miguel puts it: "I was thinking, well how easy it is for you to be Gabriel [the big brother].  Gabriel laughed. "Easier for me than anyone else in the world.  After all, that's who i am." "But it is not so easy for me-to be Miguel."  "Maybe not...it takes a little time. Wait a year or two and it will be easier."

Miguel than compares the contentment of his older brother with the contentment of his younger brother Pedro.  "That's the way it was with Gabriel.  Everything that he wants he can get.  With Pedro it is the opposite.  Everything that he has is enough." And poor Miguel is caught in the middle.  What he has is not enough but what he wants he can't quite get.

So where are you?  Can you get everything that you want?  Or is everything that you have enough?  I think most of us are somewhere in the middle-kid grown ups, if you will.  Mostly what we have is enough, but if we want more we pretty much know how we can go about getting it.  And that's enough for me.

Finding enough...that's kids stuff.