Divided We Fall

You can say what you want about about family, pretend you're a rebel and stop talking to your mom, but in the end you share the same blood and you'll always come back in the womb.

Come to daddy indeed.

I have come across people, everywhere, who got in big fights with a family member and still are. They don't talk to each others. How stubborn is that ? I could understand you not wanting to make it up to someone you don't care about, not going the extra mile to say you're sorry or solve the feud, but someone from your own family ?! It would take a minimal effort. A phone call, really.

I have always been in good terms with my mother, because she's impossible not to like. I've had a few fights with my dad - mainly around his current wife, who embodies the meaning of "drama queen" - but we never stayed brouillé for more than a few days. He lives in Shawinigan, and is not really the type of guy to hang out far from his hometown, except when he goes on camping trips with his fifth wheel, or to Banff to snowboard. Funny thing, he's been a ski patrol for a long time, and always hated these "snowboarding bums", and now it would take a bazooka to get him to put on some skis instead of his dear board. All of this to say we aren't face to face a lot, these days.

Anyway, my dad was adopted, and has a sister who also was adopted. I don't know how deep their differences are, but they always end up fighting. Well not really my dad and her, but rather my dad's wife and her. I always think about "grown-up fights" as immature behavior, or over-compensating egos - it's all about, really, admitting your wrongs.

One of my best friends is currently in a fight with her dad over him openly admitting he regrets having conceived her. She, in other words, was an "unplanned mistake". Gotta love the feeling you get when somebody as close to you as your dad tells you that. On top of that she has a mythomane mother and a father-in-law who doesn't really know what "reality" is. The effect all of this has on her everyday equilibrium isn't very clear, but it probably doesn't help a lot.

I think that a family, as fucked up as the concept might be these days, is meant to be united. Even when divorce or separation has occured, two people have built something quite uncommon, and given birth to children; it should not be overlooked. This is a situation involving more than two clashing egos. Even separated, there has to be a link between family members, a link that may provide sanity to everybody.

Divided We Fall is not just a Czech movie, it's also a guideline. Use it safely.