I was astonished! In complete disbelief. How could this happen?
I started out at the same time as he did…..was found and cut of the same wood. I knew that we were both being delivered to the same corporation because we both had the same blue and black stamp on the letterhead box we were in.
The work schedule was identical.
The title was the same.
The work output was equal or sometimes even greater by my lady.
I’d seen her dedicate extra hours into her job. She balanced her children and other engagements she had. She even went the extra mile when often times he checked out early or didn’t even care.
So why am like this? Why can’t I be like his or better yet- even larger?
It’s funny…. We look the same, same size, same color. But he has bigger numbers than I.
I didn’t know that just because I was made to be a woman’s paycheck – that I would be so much smaller than a man’s.
It doesn’t add up.
April 20th is Equal Pay Day. Because on average by April 20th 2010, a woman has finally reached the equivalent of what a man made in 2009 for the same position.
4/2/10
Home.
It usually comes back with distant familiarities. The scent of the trees I used to walk to school by….the smell of the ocean…. or the familiar sites of alley ways and crowded breakfast joints.
It’s been nearly 4 years since we officially moved away from home. It was always a place that we could bounce back and forth between. Come back to relax. Home provided a respite with a familiar solidarity.
I was surprised to see how small that piece of the world actually seemed upon visiting it again. The football bleachers that were so grand and mighty were but a few rows of metal stacked next to each other. They didn’t come close to representing the fame and adrenaline of Friday night games but looked more like a small field with little significance.
The house I grew up in was still quaint and small, but not the home I knew.
There remained the consistency of the people. I witnessed the same church members working whole-heartedly in the kitchen for a potluck, or teachers teaching their classes. It’s as if years had only passed with the graying of hair but not the changing of they’re commitment. There’s a certain degree of security in the routine.
I drove back and forth visiting friends and seeing the faces of those who represented my past, my childhood and deep friendships. I took in the ocean which was as big as I’d remembered it and happily watched my girls splash about as I did at their age. To a child, everything is big. Larger than life…fun and exciting…. Although everything seems different to me now, I smiled as my daughter spoke from the back seat: “Momma! Look at the huge football field, have you been there before?”
You can’t go home again, no matter how hard you might try. It’s a bit saddening but there’s joy in knowing that home isn’t a place anymore – it’s my family.
It’s been nearly 4 years since we officially moved away from home. It was always a place that we could bounce back and forth between. Come back to relax. Home provided a respite with a familiar solidarity.
I was surprised to see how small that piece of the world actually seemed upon visiting it again. The football bleachers that were so grand and mighty were but a few rows of metal stacked next to each other. They didn’t come close to representing the fame and adrenaline of Friday night games but looked more like a small field with little significance.
The house I grew up in was still quaint and small, but not the home I knew.
There remained the consistency of the people. I witnessed the same church members working whole-heartedly in the kitchen for a potluck, or teachers teaching their classes. It’s as if years had only passed with the graying of hair but not the changing of they’re commitment. There’s a certain degree of security in the routine.
I drove back and forth visiting friends and seeing the faces of those who represented my past, my childhood and deep friendships. I took in the ocean which was as big as I’d remembered it and happily watched my girls splash about as I did at their age. To a child, everything is big. Larger than life…fun and exciting…. Although everything seems different to me now, I smiled as my daughter spoke from the back seat: “Momma! Look at the huge football field, have you been there before?”
You can’t go home again, no matter how hard you might try. It’s a bit saddening but there’s joy in knowing that home isn’t a place anymore – it’s my family.
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