Kyra Sedgwick and the American Family

Kyra Sedgwick was on a late night talk show. I didn’t know she had been married to Kevin Bacon for 20 years. I did know they have been hyping her show on TV. I haven’t watched it yet. With ignorance about her state of affairs, I pleasantly was surprised by her earthiness and could see how her show had become a success. She exhibited down- home soul from a past decade, and it was refreshing. She talked about the 8th grade Two Step, a definition of how teenagers danced when they didn’t know how. She expressed concern that today’s kids are “grinding.” Grinding has many connotations. It is a genre of music spawned in the l950’s embellished as “Bump and Grind.” Because I have played a lot of wedding receptions and dinner dances, I learned this term. This is what couples do to a l950’s circa 12/8 beat ballad. “Bump and Grind” is how the kids danced on Happy Days or in Grease. It was sexual, but so is adolescence. A few years ago there was a television show on BET called “The Grind.” It was reminiscent of “Soul Train,” and was a modernization utilizing Hip/Hop and the beach. I enjoyed watching it, because it personified youth to me. Lately I have been mulling over this very concept, the definition of youth and things considered youthful. I have a lot of youthful content, but I am not sure why. It may be I have cruised through the “Married with Children” years without being married. Would it make you more youthful to have children? I guess not, because someone in the household has to assume the authority position. Luckily I opted out of that. Does that make me an immature or incomplete person? I don’t think so. My youthful outlook has persevered ebbing and flowing in intensity. I have had my Blue Period like Arnold Schoenberg, Igor Stravinsky, and Beethoven. This was a serious period when I began losing my eyesight and had to have penetrating keratoplasties to restore my vision. Unfortunately I am teetering on the edge of that abyss again, but I am seeking medical aid. It is easy to qualify things as youthful or geriatric, because there is a chronologically-provided “generation gap.” Middle Age (not the Middle Ages) could be considered the more difficult of categories, because just like the gray area in between the answers “yes and “no,” it is harder to define. Society easily defines youthful and geriatric because of their infrastructure. Youths go to school. Geriatrics are retired and therefore stay home. There are also obvious visual clues. America’s working Middle Class is the large potpourri that should be recognized. They are being overlooked in America. Who should be celebrated more than the group that both is “bringing home the bacon” and rearing the children? A decade ago the “soccer mom” was born as the dominant force taking the place of the family unit as a whole. The traditional American family has never recovered. The image of an affluent, SUV and cell phone-equipped erudite took control and the image of the woman has never been the same since. M.I.W.L.F.’s. (Mothers I wouldn’t like to @#$%!) Feminism took over, the sexism of the l960’s was reversed, and men became the sex objects. Television shows sprung up portraying men as macho, ignorant, and submissive. This was the beginning of the decline of the “American Dream” and the neglect and miseducation of our youth. It is easy to see how Johnny could become gay with no real father and a raving controlling seeming dyke as a mother. This generation of America’s youth have been reared with few parental role models instead relying upon the computer in their dark bedrooms. I wouldn’t say having a family demands one parent stay home, but the “Harper Valley P.T.A” was a more appropriate pre-soccer mom image. America’s misguided youth are the major buying power in the country. The brunt of products are aimed at them circumventing the middle class parent. As a result we have a more immature and parentally neglected youth being bombarded by products that reinforce their irresponsible lifestyles. Maybe it is the time for parents to cut the umbilical tails to their children’s mice and tell them to, “Grow up.” It will not go down in history well if the PC or cell phone become the defining images of youth. Will it be Gidget in a bathing suit surfing, or you masturbating to your computer? I am trying to piece together what represents youth, and therefore what defines youthful practice. The history of television contains samples from many defining eras and as a result also has had influence. I have stopped watching prime time television. This television history runs the gamut from “old school,” heavily sentimental, romance movies to” Leave it to Beaver.” Television in its golden years based its depictions of the American family on real life. Now because America has no depiction of family and has become such a melting pot for illegal immigrants, the mainstream has become obscured. That is one reason manufacturers are marketing to kids. The family unit is out of date, and America has lost touch with it. It is time for a modernization complete with the “American Dream.” The conservative, clean-streeted, homogenized, pasteurized, and sanitized Republican model has been better served in a dusty library basement. American life needs to be revitalized with the prospect of prosperity, education, health care, and culture. It is a disgrace that the world’s dominant superpower is lagging behind the domestic front. In this case it is appropriate that we need a more youthful and positive outlook, overtaking stale, unchanging, and oppressive habits of “Old Money.”