Malcolm Watts

Reflections from Shadow is an engaging work will keep the reader enthralled until the very end. A Must Read!!

Delores Thornton BlackRefer.com

INTERVIEW BY DELORES THORNTON:

DT: How long did it take to write Reflections from Shadow?

MW: The book took me around 6 years to write. Partly this was because I worked at it in my spare time, and partly because I wrote the story without an outline. I rewrote it umpteen times. My need to write it arose from my own troubled childhood, Evangelical upbringing, as well as 20 years clinical practice with troubled children, families, adolescents and adults. I wanted the world to hear the voice of a child trying to understand the adult world.

DT: Why did you write this story?

MW: Part of the reason I wrote the book was to give voice to children, and adults, traumatized by the western Judaeo Christian concept of a punitive masculine God. The growth of evangelical fundamentalism in North America (as well as Islamic fundamentalism in other parts of the world) is alarming to me. God is not man or woman, Christian or Hindu and faiths that promote themselves as having an ultimate truth that people must believe, or else, at the risk of eternal damnation, are wrong and destructive. Promoting these beliefs to innocent children, instead of generic values of humanity and inclusiveness, is emotional child abuse and socially destructive.

Mankind’s survival now depends upon our appreciation of difference in beliefs and acceptance of what people want to do and believe as long as those beliefs do not infringe on the rights of others by maintaining they constitute the ONLY truth there is and seek to impose themselves on others.

Despite what theological scholars will insist, most ordinary people understand intuitively that there are basic truths that underlay most religions and ethical contructs, i.e., the Golden rule. These universal ideas are what we need to pay attention to and understand that other aspects/structures of religion and belief systems are the result of political/cultural and sociological factors that range back hundreds and thousands of years. As the pinball wizard in my book says, They are all true, and yet none of it is completely true. Each faith contains an aspect of truth -- facets in the gem of understanding.

DT: Was Jared based on someone you know? Or was his character straight from your imagination?

MW: Jared is an amalgam of many kids I knew growing up, including myself, as well as children I have worked with in my clinical practice. We care for Jared, I think, because he has a way of questioning his world yet lacks the maturity to reconcile his questions. He also represents that child extant in all adults that continue to feel bewildered by certain questions of life, death, meaning and belief.

DT: Why did Jared not seek out his birth parents?

MW: Remember that in the past it was very difficult, nearly impossible for people to search for their birth parents. Also, such actions were generally viewed negatively by adoptive parents in that era. Children felt compelled to repress such desires and could not even speak of them for fear of “hurting” ones' adoptive parents. Many writers in the professional literature on the subject of adoption refer to this as the child playing out the role of “Good” adoptee vs “bad” adoptee. Strictly in terms of the story, I never really thought about having Jared pursue this. Generally, in those days, if someone was to search for birth parents it would not be until they were older than Jared was at the end of the book.

DT: Have you visited locales mentioned in the book?

MW: Yes, I have traveled extensively. I met my wife while traveling in Europe in 1974. I spent time in Amsterdam and Germany, and many other places, and yes I visited Dachau camp museum. I studied history in University and am particularly interested in world war II. I wanted to describe Amsterdam as it was in those days, and is to some