Middle-class Life: the Way it Is

Popular actor David Hyde-Pierce, of the longrunning sitcom "Frazier," had a commercial on television. "Once a week, gather your family around the table for a meal." Less significant than the fact that it 'went over my head' was the fact that everyone else I knew had the same reaction-- don't families always have dinner together every night? For most of us, that's the way it was-- with the exception of someone occasionally missing dinner due to an extracurricular activity at school, families had a "dinnertime," families ate their meals together. Middle-class life is most absolutely family-oriented; family is the number-one focus and number-one priority in people's lives; and it is with and for our families that we live, work, and base our decisions.

The other television commercial that was equally mindboggling was the "it takes a whole village to raise a child!" No it doesn't; it takes parents who are dedicated to and devoted to nurturing, guiding, and educating one's youngsters.

The middle-class is also referred to as "the working class." This goes beyond the socioeconomic factor and to the factor of values. Believing in earning what we have is important, but it also reflects in the attitude of taking care of what we have. The notion of treating our possessions in a shabby manner, or being needlessly wasteful, is appalling; the notion of treating the people in our lives in a shabby manner is even worse. The point of taking care of our possessions is based on the fact that we or a family member worked hard for the money to buy those items; the point of being good to the people in our lives is based on the fact that the people-- their existence and their feelings-- matter.