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Life Interrupts Mope
After scooting out to see the rather grim yet uplifting yet grim movie Children of Men, I have been brooding about the pressures of parenting. I haven't been doing this in a regretful way, but I have been a little unusually aware of the fragility of things. There is a brief mention of a flu pandemic in the movie that sent me into a little worry-cycle that was broken by the incredibly captivating story. Not only do I recommend the picture, I feel obliged to mention the performance of one small terrier in particular. A breed near and dear to me.
But it is impossible to sustain a movie inspired mope for too long, even one inspired by a really good movie, because all sorts of living intrudes. (This is why it is a good thing that I didn't become an academic- it is harder for life to intrude in the Ivory Tower and I'd probably have fallen into a swamp of mope and never have gotten out.)
Read, for instance, the very funny, if rather disgusting, article about a lice-filled vacation by Emily Yoffe in Slate. I had lice as a kid. The whole family did, actually, and it was incredibly annoying and unpleasant but nothing painful or threatening. It just seemed like yet another one of those things one has to endure that is a huge pain in the ass like doing taxes, or having chicken pox, or taking standardized tests.
But Yoffe's piece really did remind me of those weeks in Charlottesville, VA where my mother was driven to distraction by laundry and endless hair combing. From my new vantage point, I can see the nightmare more clearly. Of course, here in New York, there are substantial cottage industries based on getting rid of lice, because where there's a plague, there's a profit.
posted by Elise at 9:12 AM
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12/30/2006 5:45 AM
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