Chapter Twenty A Moment Of Levity

A MOMENT OF LEVITY
MY MOTHER’S MOST SAGE ADVICE

My mother is actually a very wise woman and, as appears to be the case with many of us, the older she gets the wiser she becomes. I say “actually” because she was raised to be a Jewish Princess and with all due respect to all princesses everywhere (including the one sitting at this computer) wisdom and princessdom are not necessarily natural allies.

As I was having a light-hearted Sunday morning chat with her today she shared a sage piece of advice that I found so delightful I wanted to share it with you. We were discussing a friend of hers who is currently in a serious relationship with a gentleman. My mother’s close friends are all strong, beautiful, accomplished, cultured and fun women and this woman definitely has high marks in all those categories. Her husband died a few years ago after a fairly long illness. She is quite comfortable financially and might, in other circumstances, be enjoying some freedom. The “boyfriend” is apparently extremely controlling and the friend is, apparently, content to be controlled. Knowing the friend fairly well I wondered, aloud, why she would want to live that way and my mother told me, with no reservations, that the friend is willing to be controlled because the boyfriend is extremely wealthy (and given about whom we are speaking we must mean EXTREMELY) and the friend is enjoying the perks.

HERE COMES THE SAGE ADVICE

My mom then explained “The problem, Leslie, with women like us, is that we are not willing to acquiesce-no one is that rich!”

I just roared, mainly because it is so true and also because, seriously, it put another piece in perspective. I thanked her when I stopped laughing and reminded her about another piece of excellent insight she had shared with me about 14 years ago.

At that time I was pretty much obsessed with leaving my then husband, my son’s father, although I was not quite ready to make the move. One morning as he was jogging with his headphones on listening to music I ended up driving down our road behind him with no one else around. I have to admit that for a moment I seriously considered running him over thus having a tidy end to all my problems (of course until the police showed up, arrested me and put me away for life). I also have to admit that the momentary fantasy freaked me out a little.

That night I called my mother and told her that I had thought about running (unnamed) over with my vehicle and felt bad about it.

HERE COMES THE SAGE ADVICE

Mom said: “Honey, don’t you know, all wives think about killing their husbands.”

This morning, when reminded of the conversation she added to it...

HERE COMES THE SAGE ADVICE

“The problem is, you can’t get away with it!”

Wishing you a wonderful and power-full day...

To be continued...