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THE ECONOMIC POWER OF SHAME

My grandmother was raped in 1940 and became pregnant.  In 1940, it was a HORRIBLE SHAME if you became pregnant out of wedlock.  My grandmother was born in 1909, so she was actually 31 at the time.  Back then, if you were born out of wedlock they used to stamp the word "bastard" on your birth certificates.   She told me the shame she was dealing with because of being pregnant and unmarried are why she decided to basically run away from home.  She was in MO at the time, but the story goes she hitchhiked to San Diego to enter into a "single mothers' home" there. There used to be a chain of these homes all over the world for these "unwed mothers" as they were also called.  You'd stay there until you had the baby and then they'd adopt the baby out for you.  Of course getting a nice hefty adoption fee in the process.  But to "give these women a fresh start" they felt it was worth the price of caring for these women for nine months.   Some...
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A MATTER OF PERSPECTIVE

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 WHAT'S YOUR PERSPECTIVE? I was thinking of the story of the Ant and the Grasshopper today. For those of you who haven't heard it - it's the story of the grass hopper who plays and farts around all during the summertime without preparing for winter. Back in the day when our ancestors lived where there was snow, you prepared all year for the harsh winters. You had to prepare and store food to last the winter. You had to make sure your roof was in good shape to keep the snow out. You have to make sure you had enough firewood cut and kept dry to use to heat the house and cook your food during the winter. You had to store water for the winter. So you spent those spring and summer months preparing to get through basically being locked in your house for the winter and survive. In the story, winter comes and the ant who has worked all during the spring and summer months chopping wood, storing food, making sure his roof is in good repair, etc. is prepared. The grasshopper h...
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JOB SEEKING DIARY

 Let's start with why I started working from home 31 years ago.  When I met my daughter's father, I thought I'd met this really great guy who worked as a youth counselor.  I admit I assumed if this guy worked with troubled kids, that he had to be a fairly nice man.  I had NO idea when I met him he'd actually be in prison for armed robbery, drug use and having been a pimp when he was younger.  All that, and more, was revealed to me once I became married and pregnant by this man.  Once we were married, all disguises were off in his book because he felt I was chained to him now.  This meant he confessed everything about his past to me, as well as he stopped taking his bipolar medication just like that.  No tapering - just stopped.   Meaning I was pregnant and now was living with a dangerous maniac.  At one of my pre-natal appointments, my doctor asked to speak to me alone.  He told me with this man's history of drug use going back to w...
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