[1]For one brief stint in the 90’s, I lived with a man who kept me. By kept, I mean, he paid all the bills, and gave me spending money when I needed it, which was the only way I could agree to walk away from my job and follow him to live in Europe. Never before or since, have I experienced this arrangement, which had its glamorous side. But with his money, came obligation and dependence. I began to hoard, so I could have money of my own. I became a yes woman.
When my stubbornly independent mother was dying, she whispered to me of her shame from no longer having money in her wallet. I never told my Dad, it would have hurt him so. For the rest of her life, I made sure there was always $100 in her purse.
(Image: Domesticated Marionettes by Hayv Kahraman [1], an artist born in 1981 in Baghdad, who now lives and works in the U.S. Thanks to ajourneyroundmyskull [2] for posting her work.)