I knew this glowing mood had to end. First I bomb at Open Mic last night, to heckles and sneers and general unpleasantness…
And today I’ve realized that my parents are among the most inconsiderate people on Earth. They treat me like a 5-year-old. I sympathize with parental instincts to hold the cord, but the degree to which it’s being taken this month is perfectly horrific. I was getting really into the Xmas spirit, buying my tree and presents, sending out cards, etc. But now I just want the whole thing to go away. Ma & Pa are using the arrival of the holidays as an excuse to soak up my free time and riddle me with guilt about how non-family-oriented I am, when in fact I’ve always seen my family as one of the more together ones out there.
Rather than asking me if I can make it to their latest party plans, they tell me when it is, and if I express a conflict, they exclaim how little I care for the family, since I’m unwilling to sacrifice my prior plans to their scatter-brained priorities.
The motivation to job-hunt - for something several hundred miles away from them - is growing by the minute. But I’m not sure how well the market is prepared to receive me at the moment.
Don’t get me wrong, I truly do dig my family. I just resent this common line which emerges every holiday season which goes something like: “Revere the family above all else, unconditionally, because they are ‘your family’ “, as if the fact that someone happens to bel related to me endows them with some mystic superiority over everyone else I meet. I revere people who give me reason to. And most of the time, my parents do in fact have many virtues worthy of a bit of reverence.
But not today, and probably not this month…