This morning, in the middle of what NBC pretends is Olympic coverage, but really barely amounts to a string bikini if you take away all the fluffy stories and advertising --
This morning, while watching the Olympics, I saw an ad that really struck me. Really. So much so that I kept talking about it through the next two ads and even into the skiing. Because somehow, amazingly, it captured this mountain west culture in one 30 second blurb.
From the beginning to the end, I saw, portrayed in soft golden hues, exactly the people my high school friends aspired to become. The perfect standard of a perfect life. And it shocked me, to have it rolled up into a single commercial like that. Manipulative. Materialistic. Posing as perfection and pro-family. And striking. And oh, high school friends, there is so much more.
But I am getting ahead of myself.
The ad starts in a library, group of college age friends at a table. Thin blond girl stands, smiles, shuts her laptop. Says she has to go. Switch to a handsome man, blue eyes, graying a little, but no gut, smiling winningly at a cute brunette, confessing that he has lost his credit card, but is going out of town. She smiles and reassures him that he will be fine. Flash to a driveway. Middle aged blond woman, thin and mature, putting her arm around the blond girl, assuring her that they're ready to go. Tween aged boy there in front of the giant truck as well. Flash back to the mature, but handsome man, swiping a new credit card. Flash to a massive truck, pulling a massive trailer. Mature man handing blond daughter a brand new pink helmet. "It's perfect", she gushes, and as gold light filters down on the smiling family of four, they all load up on their dirt bikes and four wheelers and buzz off onto the sand dune. Cut to the close: "Mountain States Credit Union*, it's there for you...."
(*Names changed to protect the innocent. Me.)
Wow wow wow.
A perfect summary of everything my high school friends thought was important in life. Shall we enumerate?
1. Being blond.
2. Being tan.
3. Being beautiful.
4. Spending quality time with family.
5. With your giant truck.
6. And huge trailer.
7. Because how else will you haul your massive, expensive toys?
8. Being thin.
9. Having toys.
10. Because family time is important, and this family has it all.
11. With the help of a new credit card.
12. And toys.
13. Because they care.
14. With toys.
Wow.
You know, there is more. Toys are fun, but honestly there is more.
High school friends, did you ever leave the mountain west and discover there is more? Or did you do your two year church duty, maybe even time in grad school, sheltering yourself, finding friends from your area, porting that mountain west with you all the way, carefully, heavily, just like Atlas at the end of the earth, enduring and straining, hefting it as a shield, until at last the duty was over and you could settle again in the west and let down your defenses and let the golden hued dream pour into your reality.
I don't mean to sound harsh or critical. I guess I am just harsh and critical. But honestly. There is more than the toys and the tan.
I don't remember the exact circumstances, but I remember last May, I was scoffing at the idea of somehow losing the neighbors' good will. So what? And an aunt called me on it, and pointed out that I received external validation outside of the neighborhood cliques. But for others, without that validation, it was harder to make opinions not matter.
She is right. I have earned much immunity from the local culture. I can smile without caring whether they judge me for being pale, for working outside the home, for having unimportant "callings" in the local church group. I am part of a larger community, and the local opinions are amusing, but not earth moving.
I wish I could share some of this immunity. I wish I could tell people that golden lighting aside, the toys won't really bring family harmony. And that the credit card certainly won't do it.
Heck, I wish I could even write a blog post that properly expressed my feelings about certain commercials without coming across as self-righteous and critical. But readers, self-righteousness aside, honestly there is more.
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4 comments:
I get what you're saying. People ask me what Utah is like, and I always say, "Shockingly, like Southern California, but without the beaches and warm weather."
I know exactly what you're saying here. (Even though I still want to be thin and tan.) ;)
There is absolutely more. When I went to college, I learned there is so much more to life than high school (jump for joy!). And when I went overseas to study, I found out there was more to life, and more to me, than I saw.
Very nice. Scary commercial. Makes you want to tell visitors what we're really like. But it does make you look at yourself and realize how happy you are that you know how much more there is to life than what other people want you to see.
Wow. I love it! I want to copy and paste this and post it on my Facebook status! :)
". . . maybe even time in grad school, sheltering yourself, finding friends from your area, porting that mountain west with you all the way, carefully, heavily, just like Atlas at the end of the earth, enduring and straining, hefting it as a shield, until at last the duty was over and you could settle again in the west and let down your defenses and let the golden hued dream pour into your reality."
You just described 90% of my ward. Awesome.
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