marley and me vs. my mothers comments
Yesterday I had the pleasure of watching a family film with my family. Now many of you might not realize how my family works—-it is fractional yet hilarious. And whenever I come back home I always have stories or memories that keep me smiling. We decided to watch a movie while falling asleep, the movie that my mother picked was Marley and Me. I’m not the biggest fan of cutesy movies like since I usually end up crying at the end, but I was overruled.
The plot as explained by wikipedia.com (for anyone who hasn’t seen it is), “Told in first-person narrative, the book portrays Grogan and his family’s life during the thirteen years that they lived with their dog Marley, and the relationships and lessons from this period. Marley, a yellow Labrador Retriever, is described as a highly strung, boisterous, and somewhat uncontrolled dog. He is strong, powerful, endlessly hungry, eager to be active, and often destructive of their property (but completely without malice). Marley routinely fails to “get the idea” of what humans expect of him; at one point, mental illness is suggested as a plausible explanation for his behavior. His acts and behaviors are forgiven, however, since it is clear that he has a heart of gold and is merely living within his nature.The strong contrast between the problems and tensions caused by his neuroses and behavior, and the undying devotion, love and trust shown towards the human family as they themselves have children and grow up to accept him for what he is, and their grief when he finally dies in old age, form the backdrop for the biographical material of the story.
It really is a sweet sweet movie based upon family values and the love of a great dog. But when mixed with my family’s personality and humor it was more than that. While the end made me cry my mother’s comments to me made me laugh through the tears. My mother fell asleep and when she finally woke up this is what she said to me, “He is a writer. Based out of Philadelphia?? He has a THREE STORY FARM HOUSE, with horses. Six hundred words a day?” Then she looks at me and asks, “what the hell is your problem? Why aren’t you doing this??” I got dissed while crying! There I was bawling my little eyes out as this poor little puppy dog dies and my mother—who didn’t even watch the entire movie made jabs at me! What the hell!!! My mom giggle through the entire rest of the movie. And I cried harder.
So yes, I haven’t really made much of myself in the terms of professional life but can that wait until I dried my tears?? Nope. Then my sister started on how they have three new cars in the driveway and could support three kids and a dog. And the fact that maybe I should move to Philadelphia. God, I love coming home to this.
