By SUSAN DROMEY HEETER, InDepthNH.org
During this holiday season, during this most festive of times, I muse joyfully on watching way too much TV, coming home from work and watching that ever festive, ever joyful, ever jubilant program: The Sopranos.
Yes, I’d never watched the series when it began, never understood the hype, did a great deal of “contempt prior to investigation” and then, well, it just seemed a good idea to head down to New Jersey and hang with the mob.
My favorite part of the series is not the blood, the gore, the violence, no, I enjoy that Tony Soprano is eating in just about every scene. He eats a lot, forever opening the refrigerator door and gazing into its contents. I imagine his hunger is a reflection of his inner demons, a symbolic reference to the depth of emptiness wrought by his lifestyle. He does like his pasta.
The series allows me to bask in a simple life of being a teacher, of driving a fifteen year old car, of being grateful to have spent a year without a gun taped to my ankle for fear of retribution, for simply fear. The drama of the Sopranos is pure escapism, the acting tremendous, the juxtaposition of their lives and mine so vast.
Escapism is lovely any time of year but particularly during the darkness of December, when the holidays can feel a little too much, when it’s simply fun to realize, “Hey, I didn’t get whacked today!” What a bonus.
Sometimes, in this fervor of holiday bliss and consumption, it’s good to grab a bowl of spaghetti and head south the Garden State, to remember the simple gift of a clear conscience, a cozy couch and HBO Max. I muse joyfully you will not be whacked this holiday season, that you enjoy your own pasta and you live simply in a world which all too often forgets how.
Susan Dromey Heeter is a writer from Dover who recently let her hair go au natural white. Writing has been her passion since her English majoring days at the University of Massachusetts in Amherst. Dromey Heeter has lived in The Netherlands, Alaska and currently basks in all things New England, including the frigid winters. An avid swimmer, Dromey Heeter’s great passion is to bring back body surfing as most children have no idea how to ride waves without ridiculous boogie boards.