1915

"When my father was told that I have been rejected by Stanford, he shrugged and offered me a drink. I think about that shrug with a great deal of appreciation whenever I hear parents talking about their children's chances. what makes me uneasy is the sense that they are merging their children's Chances with their own, demanding of a child that he make good not only for himself but for the greater glory of his father and mother. Of course it is harder to get into college now than it once was. Of course there are more children than desirable openings. So we are deluding ourselves if we pretend that desirable schools and child alone. I wouldn't care at all about his getting into Yale if it weren't for Vietnam, a father told me not long ago, white and conscious of his own speciousness... "

From the Didion book, Let Me Tell You What I Mean, p. 28