THE STANDARD WITHDRAWAL

THE STANDARD WITHDRAWAL




I have 10 days to do something.  The children are in school and will be for the next 18 years.  That means I have some free time.  All the children’s needs have been met.  Has something to do with the basic contract made in bonding with parents and child.  Precious Gift of Life, and we must do all we can to make sure the promise and the dream have a chance along the pathway of life.  Home Schooling.  Foster Parents.  Institutions of Higher Learning.  Over the last hundred years or so, the options have doubled and tripled. 
We can now start an account before the children are born to pay their college costs.  In fact, this is the modern world and all the arrangements that are available for a prosperous life can probably be found online.  The Internet.  World Wide Web. 



And so much more.  Changes come daily and I am reminded that by making the Standard Withdrawal from my bank account, a hands-free method of automatic payment can and will get things done, leaving me to go back to all the things I like to do, back in my younger days.  Add the title of Single Parent and  It-Takes-A-Village-People, and our job is almost complete.  18 years is a long time, but not really.  And so I am back to my first line of this blog.  I have 10 days to do something.




Received a notice in the mail, and because I am on the road these days, it took a while for it to catch up to me.  And when it did, I shrugged it off.  Was not too concerned, until I learned that one of the many payments in life had not arrived, and this was to be my second notice.  "You have 10 days."  All this had me scratching my head.  Wasn’t sure who to call, or what to do.  So I called the number I always do, sent a copy to the person on the other end, and was reassured.  "Sir, I will take care of this for the standard fee."  And so 10 days became a month and then a year.  I made the standard withdrawal from my bank account, bought a money order, paid the voice on the other end of the conversation, via the basic convention of saying, "The Checks in the Mail."    And over the years I think about all this, from time to time.  What does it really mean when you receive a notice saying, " You have 10 days."



So now I am thinking that over a lifetime, 10 days is nothing.  Over 12 years or even longer in this modern civilization, losing track of things can happen over night, or in an instant.  Sometimes, 10 days is not enough, nor is a lifetime, to determine what really happened, and what one should do.  Then times change.  Computers and instant address with automatic spell check and auto-fill and overnight delivery.  Then comes Identity Theft and for an instance you have no idea if this communication was meant for you.  Takes a few phone calls to get the process of Learning-By-Doing started. 
Takes a little longer to realize that the Standard Withdrawal will not cover expenses.   And the cost of having children doesn’t end when you pay your first set of doctor bills at the time of their birth.  These things go on and on.   Seeing the bigger picture, I am now aware.  10 days is nothing.  I need more time.

 

As a reminder I would like to say, this is not a blog about daycare or even Home Schooling in Tennessee.  Its not even about the children.  It might be about what happens when people take the standard withdrawal and just vanish into the night.  Take the money and run.   Now this sounds like the raw ingredients for a 40 minute television show.  Pure entertainment and has nothing to do with you and I.  But over the course of my investigation, I have learned.  This could happen to you.  The standard deviation from a regular day, and things malfunction.  And you don’t even know it, and then time passes, and you do.  And this leaves you scratching your head and asking. 

"What next?"


" What next?"    You receive your second correspondence.  It says you have 10 days.  And of course, if you have money, you can hire somebody to make your problem go away.  If you don’t have money, or for the moment can’t access the money you think you have, then things become more complicated.  That indeed is what this blog is about.  Living in the modern world, while being frozen in the past.  As if time has made it possible, to pass you by and operate automatically without you.  Retirement.  Old Age.  On the road and generally having a good time.  Replace and Rediscover The Person you happen to be today, is not as easy as it sounds.  "You have 10 days."  



 

But of course as I have learned over the years, things come to a halt when you have a flat tire, or go to the ATM Machine and your account is on empty as is the  gas tank.  So there you are.  The Standard Withdrawal, and now you know.  Things have changed.  You are older now.  Memory isn’t what it use to be.  The Children are all grown up now.  No longer in school, and truth is, you have no idea where they are.  All this leaves you scratching your head and wondering.  On This Road Taken, Have We Gone Too Far?