Meme
Here's how it works. You comment to this post, tell me your age. I will pick a younger age for you to post about. You respond to the meme questions by telling me what you did back then and what is true now. The topics are 1) where you lived. (2 what you drove, 3) your relationship(s) 4) your fears, 5) your job(s) and 6) your future.
elainegrey gave me age 45
I lived in
a single family split level home with Dianne and our two daughter in Boise Idaho, We had just purchased this home, our second. We were of working class background and the neighbors and neighborhood seemed a little strange to us, It was very difficult for me to maintain appearances.
Today Dianne and i live in a much smaller single story home at the west edge of the same city. It is much smaller than we had gotten used to. It is in a friendly working-class neighborhood. We have lived here twelve years, ten with our dog Niki,
I drove....
a 1968 Ford station wagon which i had purchased used. It started with difficulty on cold days and i held the throttle open by wedging the carburater open with
my wallet.
Now i drive a 2006 Subaru Outback
I was in a relationship
with Dianne, my wife of eighteen years. Our relationship had been very rocky over that entire period of time; but i was beginning to mature and our lives were starting to take on a semblance of stability. We were reacting to my (our --Dianne's by adoption) son's alcoholism and were about to attend our first Al-Anon
meeting which was a turning point in my life. We stayed in Al-Anon together for the next five years. Our daughters were 13 and 9.
Now Dianne and i have been together for nearly 52 years, both of us would find it difficult to imagine anything different. Our son lives near by (when he isn't homeless) and our relationship is mostly cordial. My older daughter is a remarried widow with a son in college and two grown stepdaughters. She is a great source of help to us. Our younger daughter lives out of state with her third husband, one daughter and one stepdaughter. Her older daughter is philosophy major making plans for graduate school. We talk on the phone or ipad about once a week.
I feared...
losing Dianne, losing my son, losing my ability to cope,and losing my mind. I was still thirty years away from recognizing my autism, but i knew something was wrong/different about me. I was continually in and out of some kind of therapy. (At 45, i think it was Transactional Analysis). But i had recently discovered both the Course in Miracles and the Tao Te Ching which were for me great antidotes for fear.
Today i don't think i would characterize any of my minor worries as "fears" I worry about my ability to take care of Dianne as we both get older; i worry about dying before she dies. But i have also learned that we are taken care of in strange and mysterious, and perhaps miraculous ways.
I worked at...
the local college, which had just attained university status, where i had spent the previous 11 years and would spend the next 23. The department in which i taught (sociology) had just been formed from the division of the previous social science and public services department. The five of us were very collegeal and it was and continued to be, a great place to work. Teaching gave me great satisfaction
Now i have been retired for 11 years. It first i did part time teaching and volunteer work. With Dianne's declining respiration i have spent more and more time at home and leave by myself only our of necessity.
I wanted to be....
published, promoted, and praised.
Today i sometimes still ask myself what i want to be when i grow up; but i guess i'm about as grown up as i will get. The world (or the part of it i live in anyway) is not a better place than it was when i came into it. I fear i did little to help and can only hope that i did less to hurt. I want to be a good partner to Dianne.
elainegrey gave me age 45
I lived in
a single family split level home with Dianne and our two daughter in Boise Idaho, We had just purchased this home, our second. We were of working class background and the neighbors and neighborhood seemed a little strange to us, It was very difficult for me to maintain appearances.
Today Dianne and i live in a much smaller single story home at the west edge of the same city. It is much smaller than we had gotten used to. It is in a friendly working-class neighborhood. We have lived here twelve years, ten with our dog Niki,
I drove....
a 1968 Ford station wagon which i had purchased used. It started with difficulty on cold days and i held the throttle open by wedging the carburater open with
my wallet.
Now i drive a 2006 Subaru Outback
I was in a relationship
with Dianne, my wife of eighteen years. Our relationship had been very rocky over that entire period of time; but i was beginning to mature and our lives were starting to take on a semblance of stability. We were reacting to my (our --Dianne's by adoption) son's alcoholism and were about to attend our first Al-Anon
meeting which was a turning point in my life. We stayed in Al-Anon together for the next five years. Our daughters were 13 and 9.
Now Dianne and i have been together for nearly 52 years, both of us would find it difficult to imagine anything different. Our son lives near by (when he isn't homeless) and our relationship is mostly cordial. My older daughter is a remarried widow with a son in college and two grown stepdaughters. She is a great source of help to us. Our younger daughter lives out of state with her third husband, one daughter and one stepdaughter. Her older daughter is philosophy major making plans for graduate school. We talk on the phone or ipad about once a week.
I feared...
losing Dianne, losing my son, losing my ability to cope,and losing my mind. I was still thirty years away from recognizing my autism, but i knew something was wrong/different about me. I was continually in and out of some kind of therapy. (At 45, i think it was Transactional Analysis). But i had recently discovered both the Course in Miracles and the Tao Te Ching which were for me great antidotes for fear.
Today i don't think i would characterize any of my minor worries as "fears" I worry about my ability to take care of Dianne as we both get older; i worry about dying before she dies. But i have also learned that we are taken care of in strange and mysterious, and perhaps miraculous ways.
I worked at...
the local college, which had just attained university status, where i had spent the previous 11 years and would spend the next 23. The department in which i taught (sociology) had just been formed from the division of the previous social science and public services department. The five of us were very collegeal and it was and continued to be, a great place to work. Teaching gave me great satisfaction
Now i have been retired for 11 years. It first i did part time teaching and volunteer work. With Dianne's declining respiration i have spent more and more time at home and leave by myself only our of necessity.
I wanted to be....
published, promoted, and praised.
Today i sometimes still ask myself what i want to be when i grow up; but i guess i'm about as grown up as i will get. The world (or the part of it i live in anyway) is not a better place than it was when i came into it. I fear i did little to help and can only hope that i did less to hurt. I want to be a good partner to Dianne.