Wednesday, October 31, 2012

Train Tracks

"Riverside Station.  All aboard."

I was aboard, settled in my seat with a book, hoping I would reach the final chapter before reaching the train's final destination - LA Union Station.  After spending two nights in Redlands with my friend Jen, I was on my way back to LA.

My friend Marie had dropped me off at Riverside Station just after 5 - just in time to catch the train to downtown Los Angeles.  We had spent the afternoon together, catching up on over a year of life.  Marie is one of 5 California roommates I lived with in a near mansion home my final year in California, and I hadn't seen her since my extended visit the previous summer.

She and her sister attended a conference this past spring called Storyline - a conference I would love to go to, but can't, because it's complicated.  It's not overly complicated, but complicated enough for me to forego signing up for the February conference.  Still, I recommend this conference for anyone and everyone else.  Because the conference is about living out greater stories with our lives, and I think we all have the potential for more than what is currently in front of us.  But we have to awaken the more in order for it to come to life.  And this conference does just that. 

Click here to register: http://www.mystoryline.net/conferences/

I asked Marie if anything specific came out of the conference for her and she started telling me about how she's working towards starting up a microfinance company to help empower women in the developing world.  She wants to devote her efforts specifically towards helping women because women tend to apply their earnings towards their families' well being, while men in the developing world are more likely to squander their earnings.

I find it fascinating that women have had to take on the Genesis "curse" of both man and woman.

Not that I'm at all opposed to females earning an income; I'm a huge fan of it, actually.  It just seems in an ideal world, it should complement, or provide short term relief in times of economic hardship with job loss, rather than be the primary financial source for a family.

Then again, I know more than one happily married couple who have arranged life as such where the husband stays home with the kids, and the wife is bringing in the income.  But in those situations the men are actively staying on top of home life responsibilities.

And I write this as a single, woman in her "early" thirties - what do I know about the economics of marriage and family?  Except that when two people synergistically work together there is a more that cannot be obtained as a wandering, free floating agent.

Ah, the craving for more - it never goes away, does it?

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