Everybody's Fine

I went to see this movie this afternoon. I went by myself because I hadn't heard a lot about it. I am still trying to decide if I liked it or not. It was totally the truth about life and I cried because parts of it struck so close to home. I have never really liked the word fine. To me it just means something is mediocre. I know the word fine got a facelift so to speak in the 90s, ex: She is fine! as in really hot, but most of the time when you ask someone how they are they say, "I'm fine", which doesn't mean great or wonderful or they would have said those words. It means lets don't discuss it, its not worth my time or yours and you don't really want to know anyway in most cases. The movie was about telling parents what they want to hear when they ask how are you, not the truth about how you really are, because the chilren couldn't tell their dad he had worked so hard in his life that they had just turned out to be ordinary children. As parents we have such high aspirations for our children we give them a burden to overachieve and not be satisfied with a life that is good, but ordinary, even though most of us just have an ordinary life also. What you don't know as a parent about your children doesn't hurt so much, but in truth you usually can't do much for grown children anyway, they have to find their own way eventually. Heartbreaking movie, but so full of truth about how life really is for most of us. Not wonderful, not astounding, but fine. Something about that makes me a little sad.