The first part of my life was spent in one of those families that are touted as being the ideal. The mom, the dad, two or three kids, the house, the garden. Nothing iffy about it in the view of a basically conservative society. The same structured ideal that has produced lawyers, rapists, inventors, thieves, teachers, assassins, mill workers, wife beaters, nurses, sadists, writers and so on. The fact that this ‘ideal’ unit was headed up by a couple of mismatched, unhappy, angry, disappointed, frustrated and probably confused adults is irrelevant.
Whoa, what brought that on, eh? Well, I had a conversation with, or rather I was subjected to the views of, a guy who was bent out of shape because a family moved in next door to him that he would not now or ever accept as a family. Two women, two children. Oh my Lord. What was to become of those kids. What chance did they have in this world. Well, I did manage to get in a few words about them having as good or better chance of being their best selves as anyone else before he got the gist of my views and stomped off. Okay with me. Liked his back better than his front, as it turned out. ‘Another G&T, please. And have one yourself.’
