Letters to the Editor
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Country
I don’t know about any documentary or soundtrack, but I do like the metaphor in one of the early letters of a couple in conflict as our two great Political Parties and marriage as metaphor for this great Nation we all love and protect. The two Parties are, after all, like a couple bound in a symbiosis that both depend on, with rules and expectations that keep them, by and large, on the same track and with basic needs met. And they are like a couple, in a sense - despite the constant, superficial bickering, still finding it rewarding to fornicate and fellate each other from time to time . . . . . but I digress.
Wouldn’t Family as metaphor for Country be even more accurate?
Daddy, after all, is a dry drunk who can’t quite seem to control the impulse to assault other males. He has the sympathy and support of his family despite the violence. He protects them. We are Family. Mom tolerates a lot (the pills help) and stands right up for Dad when she has to, even when he gets a little rough, all to keep her Family together. Family is everything. The kids seem so whiny and angry, but give ‘em internet access or an iPod and they calm down really well. The Family has traditions and stories: of accomplishments and happy vacations, advancements and accolades, the Christmas letters full of lies by omission, civic groups and church attendance - just like our County’s tribal tales of Great Victories and Achievements - all serving to cover what is painfully not working and to protect from the terror of insight and the pain of change.
Until the child becomes adult, he idealizes, clings to, and is bound to his Family.