I just thought it would help inform my sense of scale. Plus it would be nice to hear a story I know had a happy ending, even though the middle was as unpleasant as anything can possibly be. The funny thing is people go on and on about how the life of an American has gotten so complicated. I only just realized what a fallacy that is. Times were no simpler, it's just another conceit of media.
Mass media is what complicates everything.
Technology has made the actual process of living today far simpler, it's just confusion created by media that makes everything seem complicated because it works so hard to rob us of any comfort we might feel over being who we already are. The only thing simpler about earlier times in this country was lack of practical options. It's the luxury problems that are causing all the ripples. I'll spend what I do have on drugs or get bulimic. Or max out my credit cards trying to pretend I can keep up with the Dawson's Creek set.