Most of the correspondents seem to be caught up in their own passion plays. Rather, the writer simply started with, "I've recently realized that I am atheist." And the writer ended with, "My constant silence and lies depress me greatly because I love them so much." Most of all, the writer is concerned about raising her son.

Pragmatically there is no need either to lie or to become a proselytizing atheist. Rather, since you only recently came to this realization you might productively use it as an opportunity to explore other spiritual wells in your home town. These can include other less dogmatic denominations - Unitarians and Quakers and Baha'i spring to mind - but also Buddhist philosophy or yoga or tai chi or simply taking a walk in the park some Sunday instead of going to Church.

You love your family. Tell them that the birth of your son has brought home the responsibility you now bear to introduce him to all faiths. This is the truth. Use the opportunity to take him to the local natural history museum some Sundays to see the dinosaurs. Visit the planetarium. Your husband should have no objection to attending picnics for the other churches (and perhaps synagogues and mosques) in town, whether or not either one of you ever shows an interest in attending their services.

The question is whether he'll join the GOP again under President Palin.

This is being played for the entertainment value, but the point here is that it costs the insurance company nothing - not a penny - to cover us communally for those benefits we'll never use individually. Some people (women), sometimes (during childbearing years) require maternity care. To not cover them has economic and ethical implications for everybody.

To fret about the impossible scenarios is pointless because nobody ever receives those benefits - and there are no savings here to be realized, as Kyl (my senator) should understand. The fault here was Kyl's in tendering a vapid example. Those who don't get cancer will never need chemotherapy either - but they certainly require coverage for this eventuality, both for their own benefit as well as the benefit of the community who will pick up the (much higher) costs incurred by those without effective coverage.

The total cost is higher when millions are without coverage - but the public pays these costs, not the insurance companies. Actually, the public ultimately pays either way. The question is how much of the money is syphoned off by corporations and how much higher the total bill turns out to be. (And how many more people die or go bankrupt.)

Most of these movies are completely forgettable. "Kicking and Screaming" sounds interesting, but I haven't seen it. "The Graduate" is a classic, of course, but was ruined for me by an amazingly tone-deaf professor who based an undergrad film course around dissecting the movie for week after week. Her idea of the point of the movie was to spend a class comparing the scene with Hoffman in scuba gear with the scuba diver in his fish tank. There really is only so much you can say about such an obvious little bit of business. Mrs. Robinson? Not a word.

Is it surprising that there is such a shallow canon of post-graduate genre pictures? What is common about such a transition is not very insightful (student loans have to be paid). What is different is everything. Why focus on graduates who had no plan while they were in college? Why expect them to suddenly find themselves on a path with dramatic possibilities?

High school is a much better transition for drama. Not only college possibilities, but also the military. Sports stories or attempts to make it as an actor or musician in the big city, but also kids who may complain - but don't whine indulgently - about having to get a job. "Breaking Away" or "October Sky". What about "American Graffiti" or "American Hot Wax"? There are also plenty of movies with characters who are grateful to be in college, say "Rudy".

Someone mentioned "The Big Chill" - what a concept, give the characters time enough to build an interesting life. This would apply to that whole other genre of class reunion pictures - "Grosse Pointe Blank" or "Romy and Michele". What about "Deerhunter" or "Diner" if you want to focus on transitions themselves?

What about making a few movies about people of the same age who have chosen to pursue some sort of adventure - the peace corps, even - rather than self-indulgent slackers? Getting a boring 9-5 job is not the only option out there. Or one might think the few months before graduation could be more interesting to consider than what happens after the inevitable letdown of graduation itself.