Epilogue
In discussing Harmony, the question I am most often asked is "Do Michelle and Steve stay together or get divorced?" The answer is—I don't know. I would like to think the Kingsly's learned the lesson of authentic value and reunited as a stronger family. However, I cannot be certain.
In the wake of the 2012 Superstorm Sandy that devastated the Eastern Seaboard, I was struck by a 60 minutes interview of some Long Island residents. Even though they had been without power for two weeks and had significant water damage to their homes, they called themselves "the lucky ones." "Lucky", they explained, "because our families survived." The rest was "just things." Do we need such destruction to realize this?
As a lifetime resident of Southern California, I interact daily with people who value things. And things are good—things make life comfortable. The educational system motivates students by promising such riches can be earned with a college diploma.
Harmony was inspired by a Creed concert I attended with a friend. As we were rocking to the music, I noted two men in slacks, dress shirts and ties. They were rather stiff at the beginning, but as the night wore on, they were busting out their best air guitar. The lead singer of Creed ended the night by saying to the audience, "Thank you all. Thank you for letting us live our dream. Here. With you." So I thought, what if one of those men's dream was to be a rock star? And what if his whole life was about to crumble, so he decided to run away and pursue that dream? What if he had sold his soul in the name of "things" and forgot what it meant to be happy?
I researched the events surrounding the 2008 summer "too big to fail" economic apocalypse to connect Wall Street with the fictional Kingsly family and therein the hundreds of thousands of real families like them. Although personal responsibility cannot be discounted for its role in the international financial collapse, greed ran amuck.
And it is no revelation that it is the children who will bear the burden, pay the price and set us straight.
YOU ARE READING
HARMONY
General FictionHer father left. The perfect house in the perfect neighborhood. Claire needed her father. Her mother works hard, but hard to keep the neighbors impressed. Then, her dad runs away to be a rock band roadie. Her 4.5 AP Nerdfest brother is accus...
