Journal 4

What sort of family structure do you envision in your utopia? Consider as many possibilities as you’d like.

The family structure in my utopia would be very traditional. My family structure has definitely not been perfect but I feel that things always do happen for a reason. Having a parent pass away at a very young age and growing up in the church has really made me feel that a traditional family structure is the best. I also believe that never immediately experiencing a divorce has played a huge role. In today’s society coming from an unbroken home makes you the minority.

Going to church and sitting with my grandparents is something that is very important to me. Even if I go to church and my grandparents are not there I feel out of place. My dad’s parents have been married for over 75 years and my moms have been married 68. They do have still do have their quarrels after so many years but just knowing they have done everything together for so long it is an inspiration to me.

Another reason I feel that a traditional system is very important to me is that I have never immediately experienced a divorce. I feel that not experiencing this has shown me that though people do have disagreements they can be worked out over time. In almost feel that in today’s society it is no big deal to get a divorce. People do it every day and just move on with their lives like nothing ever happened. If I had to live through a divorce I feel that it would weigh on my heart so much everyday that I would not be able to move on with anyone else because I would think that it would just happen again. (I guess that’s easy to say thinking of just my experiences)

In my utopic family structure, members would look up to their elders. A huge problem with today’s youth is that they do not respect the experience that comes with growing older. I know that it is natural to try to rebel at one point in your life but I think it has got completely out of control.

I feel the biggest reason for this is because technology has progressed so fast that it has made parenting even harder. Not only do parents have to try to watch who their children are hanging out with but also now they have to check who they are Myspacing and Facebooking. Parents have to try to figure out when their children are old enough to watch the shows on MTV and when the right time is to give them a cell phone. In my utopia the rules would come from the oldest person in the family structure.

After making our bubble diagrams Friday in class I feel that mine and Adams diagram was much like what I talked about. A spiritual based culture would help with many of the aspects I covered. With strong beliefs and uniform values people would be more on the same page and I feel that there would be many more traditional family systems in our society. I also liked how a few of the other diagrams focused on materialism. I feel that if any society could do away with that then people would be much more polite and unselfish.