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Other essays on this theme
Essay: "My Family"by H.G. Parrish In the earlier years of my life, one through sixteen, family to me meant an endless supply of love, confidence, education, and the root source of my survival. Since capture and confinement in this Texas Prison Institution (for the crime of aggravated robbery) at sixteen, a new understanding was obtained concerning the family structure. I evaluated every detail I could muster to remember on my social relations with Mom, Pop, brother, sisters, aunts, uncles, and so forth. I applied all that I've learned from reading anthropology and sociological studies of primitive Bushman tribes in Africa to the cultures of civilized society. Now at 24 years of age, my conclusion is this: "Survival and benefit" is the foundation of all or most family structures. Understand, this is meant in the rawest of senses. One binds on these grounds and a complex array of activities take place to further the survivor and benefit roles. Don't mistake my thoughts as negativity towards family values, 'cause they're not. I'm only speaking on a raw truth. (Observe this next example, since it's something we're all afflicted with as a family unit.)
Christmas is coming up. The original intent for celebration is the birth of Christ, correct? But we find the overt and frequently ostentatious celebrations as contrary to the origins of the religious and spiritual observances. Now peace, good will, and humanitarian activities all seem to pale besides the commercial, outdo the Jones' frenzy that has seemingly engulfed the minds of all but a few. The notion that if a child doesn't get a new toy for Christmas, it'll become a familial disaster and social commentary upon the worth and value of the parent and other significant others. (And that's everyday structure.) Now if one is a cynic and believes that these holidays were, in fact, designed to serve those in power by "profit motive" generated by the masses who spend in their inane effort to purchase a reservation in the afterlife, then such holidays are a success in that intent and result. The child has to have a PlayStation and if you must purchase three games (totaling $500), it's essential to the process of insuring the child's development, that being a consummate consumer and embraces the concurrent attitudinal slant for living above its means. Needless to say, these material things somehow convert to increasing self-worth and social standing of the individuals (Mom & Pop) acquiring them, who, incidentally, are now both broke and in debt far beyond their financial resources. That's my, your, and everyone else's family. |