Family Tree

I've been feeling down
I've been looking round the town
For somebody just like me
But the only ones I see
Are the dummies in the window
They spend their money on clothes
It saddens me to think
That the only ones I see are mannequins
Looking stupid, being used and being thin
And I don't know why I hang around with them

The way they act, I'd rather be fat than be confused
The way they act, I'd rather be fat than be confused
Than be me in a cage
With a bottle of rage
And a family like the mafia

I've been feeling blue
And I don't know what to do
And I never get a thrill
And they threw me out of school
'cause I swore at all the teachers
Because they never teach us
A thing I want to know
We do chemistry, biology and maths
I want poetry and music and some laughs
And I don't think it's an awful lot to ask

So won't you please get up off your knees, and let me go
So won't you please get up off your knees, and let me go
Cause I'm here in a cage
With a bottle of rage
And a family like the mafia

If my family tree goes back to the romans
Then I will change my name to jones
If my family tree goes back to napolean
Then I will change my name to smith
If my family tree goes back to the romans
Then I will change my name to jones
If you're looking at me to be an accountant
Then you will look but you will never see
If you're looking at me to start having babies
Then you can wish because I'm not here to fool around
You can wish because I'm not here to fool around
You can wish because I'm not here to fool around
there is too much love

I could hang about and burn my fingers
I've been hanging out here waiting for something to start
You think I'm faultless to a 't'
My manner set impeccably
But underneath I am the same as you

--belle and sebastian


What is a family?

--A fundamental social group in society typically consisting of one or two parents and their children.
--Two or more people who share goals and values, have long-term commitments to one another, and reside usually in the same dwelling place.
--All the members of a household under one roof.
--A group of persons sharing common ancestry. Lineage.
--A loose affiliation of gangsters in charge of an independently organized crime unit
--A group of like things; a class.
--A group of individuals derived from a common stock: the family of human beings.
--A taxonomic category of related organisms ranking below an order and above a genus.
--A group of languages descended from the same parent language.
--A set of functions or surfaces that can be generated by varying the parameters of a general equation.
--A group of elements with similar chemical properties.
--A vertical column in the periodic table of elements.


I would enjoy the application of the mobster "family" to my own household, however this is no hell's kitchen (though dining experience of taste and appearance may suggest otherwise)... As I'm no scientist I've always found the idea of arranging elements into families as peculiar. I mean, do these elements go out for sundaes together? Watch Clockwork Orange? Would one of the more recently discovered elements wack another element (from a different family) in the face with his lunchbox because of a comment directed toward his mother element? Do these elements gripe and bargain over who has to go to Aldi's with mom and who has to put socks on their extremities and remove the algae from the pool? Is it elemental griping? If they decided to reorganize their chore responsibilities, would they be balancing their own equations?

Or maybe these elements move in gangs like in west side story. Yes, yes I know, the west side story reference was forseeable and lamentable, but I couldnt help myself and that should be no surprise- I mean after all, no one in my family can.

It's interesting to me that one definition includes people with similar aspirations and values and a shared commitment to one another, meanwhile another definition just defines a family as people sharing a dwelling. I guess that's a big question nowadays. What is a family? Who can debate the disintegration of family values if "family" is a term with so many applications and therefore so many different degrees of meaning.

Speaking of terms... there is a lingual definition of family as well. It has to do with descendency. Origin. What a funny concept in itself. To think that you are connected to that which came before, and in turn responsible for what later will become is such a concept that keeps the world turning. The attachments and links we have to people we have never known but for photographs and stories, and yet the pride, shame and motivation we derive from thoughts of them.

And this commitment to one another, where does it come from? Is it natural, is it out of love, devotion, or obligation, maybe respect? Heh, maybe out of a desire to preserve something comfortable? So many discrepencies, blurred lines of 'definition'.

=-) alrighty time to go be social. all my loving.