Confessions Of A Mask

Confessions of a Guild Leader: Facing the Online Threat as a Parent and ...

I'm currently dealing with a situation that has only a little to do with my responsibilities as a guild leader, although there have been times when my rank has affected decisions I've made regarding this issue. And even though it's actually a personal issue since it involves the in-game harassment of one of my family members, I thought I would share it here in this column because coping with complex social issues is the crux of being a guild leader, and because it involves a former guildmate.

My 17 year old daughter is in my guild and has been for two years now. She's a smart, mature, kind girl who is well-respected in the guild, and not just because she's the guild leader's daughter. She's a serious pvper who proves herself by action rather than words, and she was healing end-content next to me through all of ICC - she's a good, capable player, responsible for herself, and she has a good attitude about things. Although our guild is friendly and considerate and our chat is essentially PG-13, there is an expectation that everyone will conduct themselves in a mature manner, and that includes the teens. We're not a guild for young children, but we do have a few teens that have lasted in the guild because they're able to maintain that maturity. We've also had teens that no one could stand and that I have removed because they're just not a good fit. Still, the point is that my daughter is comfortable in an environment made almost entirely of adults, and she is treated the same as everyone else there.

Last summer she got involved with a guild member - someone whom she has been friends with for longer than she's been in our guild, but someone who is, nonetheless, an adult, seeing as he is six years older than her. When I say "got involved with" I mean that it was an online relationship only, being that he lives in Hawaii and we reside not far from Chicago. It's not like this guy was going to come knocking on our door, though when I found out about the relationship I warned him that if he ever *did* come knocking on our door he'd be met by our very large and toothy German Shepherd and a loaded shotgun. Still, I was not working at the time and I was pretty much able to monitor the relationship and it was essentially harmless. Was there some naughty chat? Almost certainly. Mostly there was just close friendship and professions of love. Should this matter to me as a parent? Not really. She's an older teenager, she's going to do what she wants anyway unless I lock her down like a prisoner, and I'm of the parenting philosophy that it's better to let your children make mistakes while under the umbrella of your influence and guidance than to prohibit their every impulse and action. I had an over-protective parent growing up, and all that her restrictions did was drive me to be extremely secretive and take stupid risks just to defy her. So, without going too far into defending my parenting decisions here because I don't actually care what you think about my parenting decisions, suffice to say that I knew of the relationship, I monitored it loosely, and it was not a problem.

Confessions of a Mask by Yukio Mishima « Bibliojunkie

About me

Besides being a book junkie, I’m a coffee junkie, ex-adrenaline junkie and chocolate junkie. I have many quests in life but reading books is one of my quests that sees no end. I read non-fiction, travelogues, literary fiction, historical fiction, International fiction of Asia and Middle East, classics, religious texts and prize winners. I will be happy to receive review request. No chick lit, YA and sci-fi please.

The Bell Jar by Sylvia Path

Great Expectations by Charles Dicken

The Dark Side of Love by Rafik Schami

The Old Man and the Sea by Ernest Hemingway

Acts of Worship by Yukio Mishima

Gate of the Sun by Elias Khoury

An Equal Music by Vikram Seth

Non-fictions

Googled Ken Auletta

Banker of the Poor Muhammad Yunus

Alex’s Adventures in Numberland by Alex Bellos

Lean Six Sigma and Digital Photography

MY TBR CHALLENGE LIST:

Winter in Madrid – C.J. Sansom (read and pass on)

Captain Corelli’s Mandolin – Louis De Bernieres (read and pass on)

Love in the time of Cholera – Gabriel Garcia Marquez

Revolutionary Road - Richard Yates

Middlesex – Jeffrey Eugenides

0 = Abandon the book after first chapter

1 = Waste of paper, we will see what the environmentalist say about this!

2 = Skip it, read the book if you have got nothing better to do

2.5 = An average book, easily forgettable.

3 = A good read.

3.5 = A good entertaining read, a page-turner

4 = So glad that I read the book, a book with substance and invaluable for future reference

4.5 = So glad that I read the book, would pester everyone to read it, invaluable, I would want to own it and wouldn't mind a second read (something that I seldom do)

5 = The book is so good that I feel like I am on scale 4 and 4.5, and more, it blew me away and lingers on my head for weeks!

Compared to the many books I have read, I count this one as one of my bold ones.

Confessions of a Mask  (仮面の告白 Kamen no Kokuhaku) is Yukio Mishima’s first novel. Reading my past posts, you may have sussed out my fascination for Mishima. This book published in 1948, catapulted him to national fame when he was only in his early twenties. Herald to be semi-autobiographical  Confessions of a Mask is about  Kochan’s life from adolescence to marriagable age. Born in 1925, Koshan was a frail child, and lived under the strict supervision of his grandmother. During the WWII, he was a student and a factory worker.