COME TO THE MASQUERADE<\/p>\n
By Lynn Ruth Miller<\/p>\n
\n
People are so busy dreaming the American dream,<\/p>\n
Fantasizing about what they could be or have a right to be,<\/p>\n
that they\u2019re all asleep at the switch.<\/p>\n
Florence King<\/p>\n
\n
Back in the dark ages when I was a child, I wanted to be a fairy princess.\u00a0 I wanted to sprinkle everyone I met with fairy dust and create a golden paradise.\u00a0 As I grew older, I wanted to become a beautiful dancer, a brilliant student, a sugar plum.<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
Little boys had fiercer dreams.\u00a0 They wanted to be cowboys and bare-chested Indians with feathers trailing down their backs.\u00a0 They wanted to shoot guns, kick puppies and punch each other. That was what little boys were supposed to do.<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
Those were the days when we all believed our streets were paved with gold and hard work could earn you a rainbow. We believed love and marriage was a right.\u00a0 Every future needed lots of babies, a cute puppy and two cars in every garage.\u00a0\u00a0 That was the American way.<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
Attitudes have certainly changed, haven\u2019t they?\u00a0 These days, little girls want to be witches, vampires and black swans; little boys dream about pirates and fierce aliens. No one believes in miracles or magic.\u00a0 We want power, money and lots of bling.<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
Little girls realize that to sprinkle themselves with fairy dust reduces them to sex objects.\u00a0 \u00a0\u00a0Little boys know that muscles only get them jealous looks at the gym.\u00a0 Healthy bank accounts, gas guzzling cars and a hot tattoo are in.\u00a0 After all, \u00a0Galahads can\u2019t pay the mortgage; and maidens don\u2019t want to be saved.\u00a0 It demeans them.<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
When you visit America, what do you see?\u00a0 You see overweight human beings guzzling MacDonald\u2019s hamburgers and Kentucky Fried Chicken while they listen to music on their I-pods, texting on their cell phones. You see huge shopping centers, clogged streets and no children playing on the streets. We put our children on school buses and worry that they will be kidnapped if they walk home from school. And no wonder.\u00a0 2,185 children disappear every day in this country.<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
Americans awake before dawn to drive on packed freeways for hours to a job that pays too little and demands too much.\u00a0 They battle traffic jams to get home too late to say good night to their children, turn on TV with a beer in one hand and a remote in the other. There is no time to admire the daisy that bloomed in the garden or the pink dragon their child made in school.\u00a0 I see women dropping off their children at day care so they can go to an office, work until five, pick up the children, do the grocery shopping, clean the house and make dinner with no time to enjoy the money they have earned or get to know the children they have created. I see families buying gadgets they don\u2019t need, wearing clothes that turn them into carbon copies of everyone else and I wonder if they know what they are missing.<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
There is a lot of good in the American way, of course.\u00a0 I love that women have choices and men do the dishes. I love that, in California at least, you can be gay or straight, black, white or yellow and still have a shot at grabbing the gold ring.\u00a0 I love that little girls play football and little boys are allowed to cry.<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
Not long ago, I was visiting a family in Edinburgh and when I opened the front door, their little girl was sitting in the hall singing to her dolls.\u00a0 The first thing that occurred to me as I watched that child so wrapped up in her fantasy she didn\u2019t know anyone else existed, was \u201dThis could never happen in America.\u201d<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
Just last month, I lost my way on a Brighton street and a woman I did not know walked me several blocks to my destination.\u00a0 If you are lost in my town, it is your bad luck..\u00a0 People here have deadlines.\u00a0 They do not have time for compassion.<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
I wonder if California dreaming is fun anymore.\u00a0 We make headlines every day. You can\u2019t beat us for glitter, but something awful has happened to the gold.<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
We must stop talking about the American dream<\/p>\n
And start listening to the dreams of Americans.<\/p>\n
Max Beerbohm<\/p>\n
\n
\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
COME TO THE MASQUERADE By Lynn Ruth Miller People are so busy dreaming the American dream, Fantasizing about what they could be or have a right to be, that they\u2019re…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":6,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"yasr_overall_rating":0,"yasr_post_is_review":"","yasr_auto_insert_disabled":"","yasr_review_type":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[837],"tags":[],"class_list":{"0":"post-2346","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","6":"category-joe-cillo"},"yasr_visitor_votes":{"stars_attributes":{"read_only":true,"span_bottom":"