The Golden Rule and Platinum Cards

I have a closed credit card with Chase that I owe no small amount on. It used to be paid by automatic withdrawal from my Wachovia account and I had no real issues. In the early spring Wachovia became Wells Fargo and my account numbers changed. When I placed a call to Chase and let them know that my account number was changing they updated it for my mortgage but not my credit card. I take no responsibility for this, honestly, nor do I take any responsibility for the fact that no calls come through to me unless the number is in my phone book. So though they had their collectors calling and calling it was to no avail. I probably wouldn’t have answered anyway. I’m pretty notorious for being averse, nearly allergic to phone calls so unless bill collectors text now best of luck to them. The whole Chase fiasco has dented my credit temporarily to be sure and I am unhappy about it, but a few years before I bought my home I single-handedly destroyed my credit on my own and built it back up. That was not insurmountable nor is this. It doesn’t keep me up at night.

Nonetheless something got into me this morning and I called Chase. I had a direct number for someone in customer relations and having a slight cold I knew I had that husky voice thing going on. I can sometimes sound a bit young on the phone, especially when forcing myself to remain patient. I explained my situation in school, that I had a mortgage with them also and had never been so much as a day late on that and had in fact made many additional “apply to principal” payments and that in the spirit of doing unto others what they were asking others – the American people – to do unto them – would they please simply consider writing off my debt? It is under a thousand dollars. After a few minutes of silence I was told that a write-off is not possible.

I was quite certain that would be the answer. I may not be too big to fail but I am just curious enough to try.

Sarah and Clara, Summer 2012

I thought last semester would be less taxing that it turned out to be. I am hoping my next (and final!) semester will be rather low-key, but I am not planning on it based on past experience.

Now that I have been ‘free’ for two weeks I have done two things in particular in greater measure than in the previous five months: I have read for pleasure (5 books!) and most pleasant of all I have spent time with my brother, sister-in-law and niece.

It’s hard to believe that my favorite little person in the world is to turn two next month. She is talking not only in words but in very short phrases. “No” and “shoes” seem to be her favorite two words right now.

It was last Thanksgiving that I noticed her keen interest in cameras and began taking extra care to put mine out of her reach. Having rarely seen a camera that is not digital, after you take her photo she says gleefully, “I see! I see!” and reaches for the camera to see the photo on the LCD screen. It was in this give-and-take (admittedly, she wrested the iPhone away from me) that she was able to take the photo below, which I believe is her first self-portrait. If I may posit an opinion I think it quite good:

Here we are, my buddy and I:

I’m looking forward to a long, fun- (and photo-)filled summer this year and every summer. They come as fast as they go, faster every year.

Hunger Strike and Anorexia

Hunger strikes are rather rare in our culture, or rather hunger strikes named as such are. Anorexia Nervosa is far from rare. I became fascinated while doing research last semester about one branch of thought that posits that Anorexia is largely a protest through the body, culturally and politically and hence a hunger strike. I can’t say I entirely disagree. Without getting too far bogged down by jargon and footnotes the argument goes like this: because what is asked by the culture of the individual is so specific, borderline cartoonish due to its unrealistic demands the Anorexic makes a mockery of the expectation by giving what is asked, to which they respond by treating her as sick, ironically, never reflecting on their societal norms.

In short, it caused me to question who is really “sick” and it isn’t only those who cease to graze, but those who fix their gaze upon the impossible with no thought to the consequences. Beauty being everywhere, they look to a rarified myth to the exclusion and even the destruction of so much. I thought it not only possible but probable and poignant that many women like myself were pointing to that problem by our hunger strikes. I only hope that we can articulate this better soon in a way that will do us no harm – and to a society that is receptive to what we have to say.