Family Values

So, I’ve been keeping up with (through MySpace) all sorts of drama involving a family I know. I really don’t know why I care either…
The largest portion of the drama has been involving one friend, and her relationship with the son of this family. They’ve been fighting for years, and it has (as far as I know – Diana won’t let me get back in touch with the friend) completely fallen apart. I have been in full support of the friend, but, at the same time, I feel for the family…
The mother of the family has started to blog about her children, and has even posted a comment about her son-in-law, praising him and at the same time using the post as a jab at her daughter-in-law (or soon to be ex-daughter-in-law; the friend). Well, the mother’s last post was about her youngest daughter. She feels that she has lost her daughter.
A few years ago, the daughter had moved away to attend school some eight hundred (give or take a few hundred) miles away. During this period the distance between them grew. Now the mother is feeling saddened, for the daughter does not share the same love that she had once before.
I feel sorry for the mother. I feel sorry for I know that her world is falling apart, and that things she once knew are no longer true.
And I don’t know why I care.
I recall the daughter saying that she loved her family, but at the same time, she couldn’t wait to leave, so that she wouldn’t feel the obligations or oppression that she had faced while being at home. The girl realized that she had been and was being stunted by staying at home. She felt a need to break free. And apparently she has. and the mother sees this as something negative. I feel what she is saying, but I can see what the daughter is going through as well.
After having been at home for twenty years, it’s rather nice to go out into the world, and to truly discover who you are… and this road is a very difficult one to travel… and it lasts a lifetime.
I do not fully understand the gravity of the daughter’s situation, for I had never been in an environment as the one she had lived in. The family attended all church functions religiously, the children were schooled at home, and all significant others had to be approved. An old-fashioned family. Must have been difficult.
There had been a rumor circulating that the daughter had discovered a lifestyle which the family, and the Christian based school did not approve. From what I heard, this had been a lie told by another student. When I had heard the rumor, I honestly believed that it was very possible, and that it would explain the absence of communication between the daughter and family. It made sense that the daughter would cut ties based on this lifestyle change based on how the family treated her uncle.
I sometimes wish that I had never told them what the rainbow on his truck meant.
So, now, after a half hour of writing, I have lost all focus on what I was writing about. I believe that I should take that as a sign to step away from the computer, and to go do some housework….