Would being a father mean I would have to abandon my writing, or could I, like many of my white friends and teachers who were writers, simply depend on my wife to support me and our child while I continued to write novels and poetry?

FORBES: A New Father's Struggle With Unemployment: 'How Will I Provide For My Family?'

And finally, since the world is a strange and wonderful place sometimes, while writing this piece an email came from some friends of mine with their Xmas gift: a donation in my name to Doctors Without Borders.

FORBES: Atlantic Philanthropies and Charles F. Feeney: How Wealth-in-Action Redeems Us All