Unifying Images/Maps & Legends

My mother and father had very few choices about how to live their lives--- that is if they wanted to remain connected to their families and the way of life they understood. This is their map do far:

WORK
MARRY
WORK
HAVE A CHILD
WORK
WORK
WORK
HAVE ANOTHER CHILD
WORK
BURY PARENTS
WORK
RETIRE

There aren’t many choices evident here, right? Mom and Dad did what was expected of them. Depending on how you read their map it is either SAD or immensely COMFORTING. This is neither here nor there but I believe my mother and father would have liked to have found a happy medium between what was expected of them and what their hearts told them to do.

I was born without a map or maybe I lost the damned thing. I cannot look to my family for direction either because I’m traveling in a different city. Hell, they’re not sure if I’m even on the same planet. So, I have no restrictions---virtually unlimited choices about how to lead my own life. Is there any need to explain why this is at once a good AND bad thing?

Convenient metaphors aside, the characters in A Weekend Near Madison struggle to discover new country---a way to live that will allow them some of the comfort of tradition while honoring the freedom of personal choice and individuality. For Nessa and Sam a baby will give them that direction and tradition. David and Doe quite literally got lost when they chose to abort their child. The baby would have allowed them to grow---to move on---to strengthen what they had already built. Now, if they can bridge the emotional distance between them, they will have to find a different way forward with their lives.
Jim is an artist pulled along by two opposing and equally primal forces---the desire to CREATE and EXPRESS and the desire to CREATE and MULTIPLY. His artistic nature makes him sensitive to the disregard Nessa dishes out to him. It is not an isolated case in Jim's life. Sam fairly backs Jim up by saying, “It’s a tough time to be a guy.”

David, Doe, Jim, Nessa, and Sam suffer because it is nearly impossible to move safely forward with one eye always looking back.