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Time comes to tell it like it is
(by Barbara Christian - March 11, 2010)
WINDOW ON MAIN STREET, BY BARBARA CHRISTIAN
Time comes to tell it like it is
My mother told me it would happen, but I didn't believe her. She said there is a trade-off for the indignities of old age, and it is the ability to say exactly what you think with no holds barred.
She amazed when it happened to her, because she was the kind of person who never questioned the authority of experts or those in charge of a situation.
When Dad died, she found herself having to do the things he did. Like hiring household maintenance people. Mom soon found herself negotiating with painters and plumbers like a pro. If something was not to her liking, she pointed it out, and she kept at it until it was right.
She was well into her 80s when she found her voice.
"I can't believe I am telling people what to do," she would say, reflecting on her former life of condescending.
Recently, I have found she was right about the trade-off. For me, saying exactly what I think often happens in this space, writing and saying things I would not have dreamed of doing as a younger person.
When you are young, the whole social-standing thing gets in the way of speaking your mind. When you are young, what other people think is everything.
Aging makes you wise to those insecurities. My experience with the trade-off begins in my brain, travels through my heart and comes out of the fingertips, onto the keypad and eventually shows up in this space.
Aging and old age can disrupt the body, or, as poet-songwriter Leonard Cohn put it, it makes you ache in the places where you used to play, but I would like to think the trade-off is worth it.
It wasn't that long ago that I would not have written the following.
Open letter to Bentleyville: Any chance of getting the Christmas swags down off the light poles any time soon? Before Easter?
At this writing, the now-brown evergreens are still dangling from the street lights with their former red bows tattered and trailing.
The desiccated remnants of Christmas past also draw attention to the state of the bridge railings. Both the Solon Road and Miles Road bridges, once a rich black, are chipped to the metal and have been for at least a year.
If this is the county's job, then someone from Village Hall needs to get on the phone and tell the appropriate party that a coat of paint is needed. Or the village could hold a fund-raiser and a community work party.
Then there is the Cuyahoga County Board of Elections. In January, I requested a report from the board. The employees were helpful and efficient, and the report arrived by mail in a couple of days. No problem there.
Some time later, a bill arrived. It was for $1.45, the cost of the copies and, presumably, the postage, envelope and employee time. Fair enough.
I sent a check for the amount and figured that was that. It wasn't. A few days later, a receipt for my payment arrived. Totally unnecessary from my point of view, because the canceled check would have served the purpose.
It seemed like overkill. But then, the board of elections needs to show financial accountability, even when the price to do so surpasses that of the service rendered.
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