My Mother's Hands

As a child, I remember looking up over the counter at the grocery store while my mother wrote the check to pay for the loot.  She had the most beautiful hands, writing so gracefully across the check book.  She gently tore out the page and handed it to the clerk.  Her wedding ring sat just perfectly on her finger as her wrist flicked over for the receipt.  She seemed so grown up, so adult.

When you are small you tend to see heads with no neck, stomachs with smiles sitting on top of them, way up high - and hands.  My mother's hands always gave me a sense of security and calm.  They were graceful and soft and yet so in control. Her hands ran the house, comforted the hurtful moments and waved at us furiously when we acted up in the back seat of the car.  They directed the world. Her hands commanded little events and large plans.  They dialed the phone with the utmost of grace; the dial going round and round while she selected which hole to place her index finger into.  The memories of watching it make me smile still.

My mother's hands knew all that needed to be done, and yet they also rose to the occasion of artistry. They drew lovely sketches with charcoal.  They managed to paint water colors of beautiful scenery.  They showed a creative side need not be suppressed in spite of the daily grind.  They held wonder and they held control.  What power and mystery they possessed.

And yet my mother's hands grow old, fragile and more beautiful.  And now mine are aging too.  As I talked to a friend today waving my hands in the air, I saw the spots.  You know the spots that reflect the sunshine hours you spent and the horses you rode.  They reflect the hours of typing and the years of holding babies.

As I look at my hands, I am grateful for my mother and her mother before her. Their hands showed what power there is in a simple gesture.  Yes, I remember well how beautiful my mother's hands are, and hopefully will be for many years to come.

Rising to the Occasion of the Seven Year Itch?

Perhaps its just my age, or maybe my friends age, but it seems like several of the "midlife crisis" set are changing big time.  It used to be that you heard about men leaving their wives of twenty years to find the new trophy wife or to pursue the sports car of their dreams.  http://www.urbandictionary.com/define.php?term=trophy%20wife

But the people I hear about are women making mid life choices to leave their spouses or their comfortable habits and pursue a new lifestyle.  Some are leaving to change their life in big ways.  One I know of left her home and job to pursue marathon running competitively.  Another left because she wanted to live in a big city, having lived in the country for the last 20 years (could have been the commute).  And just tonight, my husband told me about another woman that we both know, planning to leave for a new love.

Perhaps it is just my imagination, but perhaps it is just my generation.  We are the ones that had to pursue it all: families, jobs, social activity, community service.  The soccer moms with their anti-tiger mom approach of giving theirs all the things they never had as youth.  My generation stormed in and now is changing the with the tide of age.  We may be tired of being it all, or we may just need to rejuvenate.  Some are doing it with their families, others are desiring to pursue who they are....  sort of like the teen years of finding one's self.  Many (mostly those left behind literally or figuratively) think they are making a bad trade and a poor choice.  But I am not so sure.  It isn't so much that the choices they made to begin with were right or wrong, as the choices they made twenty or thirty years ago don't apply anymore.

Articles on Crisis for Women

Several of the women I know are just plain unhappy with where they are.  They rose to the top of their game, raised their children, performed the house chores and were active wives.  They were challenged and took the challenge, rising to the occasion of ever more demands.  And now they face a long future.  Isn't 40 the new thirty? and 50 the new 40?  Don't they have another 30 years of life at least to pursue happiness and fulfillment?  Didn't they give enough and deserve a second shot?

What if their situation is not bad, it just isn't enough?  When one reaches the top or the plateau of career and a full family, you face more of your self.  You look in the mirror and see the inevitable change and maybe you think its now or never.  Maybe you think that you have so much time left, there is enough to be a whole new person with different aspirations and emotions and growth.  It is real; we do have a long time to be new or renewed when our children leave and our jobs top out - or are even gone.

AARP has many resources for those who want to enter a second career  ttp://www.aarp.org/work/working-after-retirement/

Other sites have info on rebranding yourself http://hbr.org/2011/03/reinventing-your-personal-brand/ar/1. I think people stop and wonder if they should be looking at a second life....  You know sort of the trophy wife scenario only now it is the trophy me instead.  I understand that feeling and the need to expand, to find something meaningful at this age and this time.  I look back on my mother's life and my grandmothers' lives and wonder if they didn't think and feel the same thing.  One of my grandmothers had already started a second family late in life.  I doubt she had time to think of new pursuits.  But surely those like my mother, who married at 19 and lived their entire life married and mothering, thought of pursuing a different dream or another course at some point.

I am not writing to advocate for leaving your spouse or changing your life.  That is a deeply personal choice that is way too complicated to indulge.  But I do understand the desire to be more than the supermom and the super employee.  I understand wanting to be a super you with a new identity and new purpose.  The options that we have are far greater than those who came before us. And those options present the challenge of choice.  Choosing is hard, as it is probably not reversible and not easy.  Even those who are certain that it is right will tell you how difficult the transition is.  Frightening really.  It does require some bravery to be someone new.

Don't be crabby about change.

I just wonder how it will turn out in thirty years.  I wonder if we look back and say that the choices we made on our second wind were as gratifying as the first.  This generation of women s broke a lot of ground and raised a fantastic group of children. They changed the workforce, the congress, and maybe the path of marriage for the future.  Now they are changing themselves again.  I guess the challenges aren't over.  I wish all of those looking down that path well. And I wish the ones that aren't going to change with you well too.

Durbin is still an undecided process Rules still pending

I know, I know.  Reading the WSJ and keeping up with the Durbin amendment seems to be beyond our daily reach.   But it can and will affect how you and I transact payments in the future.

The impact could be as simple as no change to the consumer in terms of cost, but meaningful in terms of knowing your costs....

"The Journal said a report by the Center for Responsible Lending, a nonprofit research group, concludes that new credit card rules made billions of dollars in charges more transparent, which should help lower costs over the long-term."

The bigger issue is the obfuscation of what the charges are for.  Credit card Associations are calling this a fee for the use of the card.  But few consumers actually understand the process or how the costs are incurred and then passed on.  It's kind of like my complete ignorance of how wheat costs are determined.  I sort of know what goes into it, but couldn't really measure it.  I just know how much flour costs.

But cards are different as they will soon replace cash all together. And then you no longer have a choice of how to pay.  If consumers don't have a choice, then it is a monopoly, no matter how many logos appear on the face of the card.

I don't have a magic answer, I just know that the balance of the consumer and the industry - as well as the banks- is askew.  It is our job to pay attention and to write our opinions to Congress and to the cards and banks.  Lack of actgion today, will have consequences tomorrow.
http://www.pymnts.com/mastercard-president-tells-fox-news-why-consumers-should-care-about-durbin-debate/?nl

I will try to keep up with this issue and keep you posted as well

Update: 

Post personal-finance columnist Michelle Singletary weighs in on the banking lobby's effort to roll back the Durbin rule. From the consumer's perspective, "we can't win this fight. Even with lower swipe fees, there's no guarantee that merchants would lower retail prices to reflect the break they would be getting. I have a wild and wacky idea. What if we just went back to using cash? ... Our rebellion against electronic payments would show merchants and financial institutions that we still have some economic power. We don't have to be damned whichever way this debit battle goes."