How to Survive the Post Holiday Blues Without Leaving Your Couch
Kasmore
Just having survived the holidays with my dear relatives I can empathize with the woman who is searching to rent a family for her upcoming wedding. The problem with next of kin, unless your last name is Soprano, is that you cannot easily get rid of them if they pose a threat to your carefully crafted plans. Often the persons to whom you are closely related are not the ones you desire to spend your precious moments with.
From silk flowers to silicon body parts, we often purchase substitutes for the real thing usually when the genuine item is difficult to obtain or fails to meet our specific needs or expectations. Increasingly the fake is becoming more popular than the real. Synthetic diamonds, artificial flavors even fake bloggers —or flogs as they are called— are gaining in popularity; all because they are cheaper, more consistent or more easily controlled.
Hiring a faux family to help you sell a house, mourn your dead or save your wedding may be for many people the plastic fruit that makes the unstable reality of life forever fresh. In today’s world it might be better to buy your MySpace friends if you want to ensure that they wont humiliate you.
Or as Sue in the Channel 4 documentary My Fake Baby says, when asked if she ever thought of having a real family, “It’s too much of a commitment. I can’t do the noise, I’m so fussy really. If I could pick a child off the shelf that would be wonderful. Because I could say ‘I want one that’s quiet, I want one that’s well behaved, I want one that keeps clean.’ you know this kind of thing but obviously the reality isn’t like that.”
It is balancing this reality between messy life and idealized life that makes suffering family during the holidays so stressful. I want my family to be like this but often my experience is like this and as a result it takes me the better part of January to recover; usually by viewing several “dysfunctional family” flicks to experience the catharsis my psyche demands. Nothing is better than a little schadenfreude to make the aches of one’s own life go away.
Here’s my list of the top 5 “dysfunctional family” films to view while recovering from the “too much time with the relatives” blues. What are yours?
Comments
LOL! If only I could replace certain members of my fam - life would be sublime, but then who would give me the inspiration to write or vent for hours on end to any available friend? The fact remains, that if life was ideal, nothing would get done. There’d be nothing to rage against and eventually conquer. Everyone would just quietly enjoy the ride. Sounds kind of boring if you ask me.
Posted on January 9, 2008 12:42 PM by Sherri Smith
Top 5 Family Dysfunction Films:
The Jacksons: An American Dream
Mommy Dearest
The Color Purple
Little Miss Sunshine
Soul Food
Posted on January 9, 2008 12:48 PM by Sherri Smith
You all def need to see “Sordid Lives” for a true taste of dysfunction.
Posted on January 9, 2008 1:43 PM by kebra rhedrick
Don’t forget Ordinary People.
Posted on January 9, 2008 3:00 PM by Barry Joseph
& don’t forget:
* Love Streams
* Hannah and Her Sisters
* Divorce Italian Style
* Cries and Whispers
* Welcome to the Dollhouse
Posted on January 9, 2008 9:54 PM by Lynda Hammes
I don’t think I can relate. My family’s perfect.
Posted on January 10, 2008 10:10 AM by Violet Yume
I have to check out Santa Sangre. It sounds totally appalling.
And then there’s Crumb and Capturing the Friedmans. Whole new heights (lows?) of dysfunction.
I think for me maybe the documentaries are the worst…and the best at making me feel better about my own family!
Posted on January 10, 2008 3:48 PM by Elena Schneider
Santa Sangre? Damn. That’s pretty rough.
Posted on January 29, 2008 5:16 PM by S K