"'Forget' the system"

In 1994 there was a little known movie called "The Chase" starring Charlie Sheen and Kristy Swanson. In the movie Sheen plays a convict who is convicted to life in prison and in order escape from that fate he hijacks a car and heads out to Mexico. The movie follows him on the California freeways and in one of the scenes Sheen calls his lawyer in which he proclaims it's time to "'forget' the system." While the lawyer tries to impress upon him that you can finagle, schmooze, and work the system you can't 'forget' the system.

While I, like Sheen's character, would like to 'forget' the system I too know that I can't. The system I would like to 'forget' is not the judicial system but the American system of having to leave the house with your wife and daughter to go back to work. It's not like I'm opposed to working, that's not the case at all but I think that when something as life changing, such as the birth of your daughter occurs, you should be afforded some liberties to spend time with the important people in your life. Just take a look at Max Weber's prodigal work on the subject, "The Protestant Ethic and the Spirit of Capitalism" and you'll get a slight glimpse into the marriage of these two strong forces within American life. However, I think it's about time that we all change the system, stand up and start to morph the ideology from "live to work" to "work to live," so that when life is more important we can realize and appreciate it with all of the little time we have to enjoy it anyway.