The reason women pursue those part time jobs is they are busy providing childcare during their prime career years. I believe the government should pay women for the invaluable work of perpetuating the species, instead of requiring them to have children they aren’t ready for or don’t want, and thereby forcing them into poverty. If, at the least, we had free childcare, then the wage gap could be fairly addressed.

As to my marriage, we’re doing okay. We are both learning through counseling to risk being vulnerable and ask for what we want sincerely, without anger or blame, to lift ourselves out of our combative rut. It’s working, if slowly, thank god!!! No one wants to look at their last 40 years and say, “Oops! That was a mistake.” Instead, we’re working on ourselves and enjoying retirement.

This morning we biked over to a park together and now we’re sitting in the sun on the grass, listening to a jazz band practicing in a nearby tunnel, reading and writing and noticing the flowers and birds. Ahhh… If you ask me, old age is a lot better than advertised!