President Obama signed the healthcare reform bill today. I watched it on CNN. It’s powerful, emotional and deeply meaningful to me even though I am not in the midst of a health care induced financial crisis.
And yet…
I have made decisions in my life that dismissed and diluted my creative work because I thought it was more important for me to spend my life force contorting myself into the kind of person who could work quietly, efficiently and productively in a large business office. I wanted to be the kind of person who deserved health care insurance more than I wanted to generate my own work.
And…
That whole not trying for a second kid for multiple reasons… But at one point, one of those reasons was a very real fear of giving birth in a hospital while between jobs and therefore without insurance. We have friends who did this and they did have to declare bankruptcy and their marriage did end in divorce.
*caveat: I sent a version of this to NYCMOMS blog which means it’s actually and original post for them. Can’t sort it out now, time for after school after test prep pick up followed by; Delivery of the Girl Scout Cookies to Daddy’s Office in The City!
You just wrote exactly how I feel. I have found myself working in an office for almost all of my working life (20+ years) so that I could have insurance and benefits. I’ve, in a way, ignored my creative passions for this reason. I had insurance and still had to pay $10,000 for the birth of my second child. Thank you for this post.
Jackie