"It's asking a great deal that things should appeal to your reason as well as your sense of the aesthetic." W. Somerset Maugham, 'Of Human Bondage', 1915 English dramatist & novelist (1874 - 1965)
"Who knows what form the forward momentum of life will take in the time ahead or what use it will make of our anguished searching. The most that any one of us can seem to do is fashion something--an object or ourselves--and drop it into the confusion, make an offering of it, so to speak, to the life force."
Ernest Becker, The Denial of Death

Sunday, April 5, 2009

Dysfunctional Families

You know what (I MUST be in a bitchy mood today)--I'm tired of that phrase. What the fuck IS a "functional" family?

Outside of complete disasters of families, those who abuse each other and their kids, aren't the rest of us in the same damn boat--trying to figure it all out, adhering to the "norms" of our current society, trying to raise the kids the way we think they should be (or I should say, as our current society thinks we should)?

Note: I say current because if you do a little research, the way we raise kids today is NOT the way kids have been raised in earlier years--even 40 yrs ago....

Yes, there are certainly better "adjusted" families or perhaps we should say "happier" families? I'm not sure. But I can guarantee this...we don't take into account our genetic makeup enough so we all go around wondering why we are screwed up or why "so and so" screwed us up (usually our parents--well, your kids are going to say the same damn thing as you are about yours).

In the end, we all try to do the best we can. Will we fail? Hell, yes...but on a personal level don't we fail ourselves most of the time? Isn't that what it means to learn and grow? Besides, the affects of our family home life on us are greatly over exaggerated. The affects of our peers on us growing, well, that is a whole different ball game.

For those who already don't have a positive outlook or attitude (or those for whom it comes easy (probably due to genetics))--it maybe a constant battle but every morning when you wake up, you have a choice; to be happy or not.

And that's all that there is in this life.

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