I’m sitting in front of the television of a small, apartment-style hotel in Chicago. The space looks like something out of a House & Home magazine circa 1998, with heavy floral drapes and a particle-board dresser made to look like mahogany. It isn’t the fanciest place I’ve been put up…

I came across a family portrait I had drawn when I was little. Back when my kid brother was just a twinkle in the sky. I drew myself the same height as my father, with my mother towering over us. She looks authoritative, but not oppressive. More like she is…