When one dances, like in most other pleasurable activities, one wants to do more and better. My dance was no exception, and like most, it was taking place in two different venues, and happening simultaneously. The first, and foremost, was with my partner. Our Paso Doble, was being revived, perfected, and improved. Not specifically as an ice dance, but metaphorically, in a parallel set of career experiences. I was learning fast and becoming more advanced in my duties and rewards.
Not, however, in an entirely painless progression, however. My participation in this growth required a dedication of time and attention that was not allowing me to be involved fully in my now important parental responsibilities. The main burden fell upon my partner, and it did not please her, and allow her to develop her dance steps in sync with mine. She was falling behind, and was on the negative side of deserved duties and rewards.
We were both aware of this, and in a not altogether painless way. Her toes were not being stepped on any more, but they were being bottled up and confined so that her dancing was in need of more opportunity. Fortunately for me, her patience and awareness of my needs overshadowed her own, and she supported me as we went through various stages of my career advancement.
That went on for about 20 years, and it was both rewarding and taxing. Especially, in particular movements in family location and adjustment. We went from Buffalo, to Poughkeepsie, to Rochester over that period. My adjustment was more easily accommodated, as my personal associations pretty much existed within my career field. My dance partner, no so much. Hers (and my children’s) was a continual starting over process.
When she started her life over in Rochester, she started learning a new set of dance steps. One kind of dance led to another, and soon she was dancing a dance of her own – she became an Antique Jewelry dealer. She, too, now had a career. A part-time one, to be sure, but one that engaged her talents in a satisfying and rewarding way. She kept getting better and better.
Meanwhile, my dance steps were being suppressed, and to some extent, by my own circumstance. The long and short of it was that I had actually passed a point of financial reward that was comfortable in the minds of those in charge of my services. As a result, they concluded that I could be replaced by two people for what they were paying me. I was so notified, and my position was removed from an organizational operating team for that bluntly stated reason. I did not take it lightly, and through the process of our justice system, charged my employer with my removal as an egregious case of age discrimination.
The EEOC investigated, and agreed.
The case was never tried, but a substantial settlement was arranged. I was awarded a significant sum, but no longer had a job. My part of that career dance was no more. I needed a whole new set of steps, and was really too old to start my previous set of steps over. What to do?
OK, my partner, in her dance, had taught me some of her simpler steps, and I could do some Paso Dobles with her in her part-time career. Those steps, along with my settlement, could take her Antique Jewelry business from small-time to big-time. A decision was made. The Antique Jewelry dance was revitalized with the proceeds of my settlement and our careers were together again. Only, this time she had the Paso Doble lead, and I became the cooperating Antique Jewelry support dancer.
We began another 20-year dance on those terms.
What a dance…
With our combined resources, we began an expansion into the big-time world of Antique Jewelry. In very rapidly expanding stages we went from shopping mall, and little church shows to doing annually, 26 shows up and down the East Coast (including three wholesale shows). As this was unfolding, our daughter Kathleen, was employed as a flight attendant on a major airline, so we took advantage of the space-available perks that allowed us to fly free.
We would travel far and wide to get unique jewelry, so saleable in our markets. We went to Europe, especially England to buy Antique Jewelry of the Georgian. Victorian, and Edwardian eras. We would go to the sources in the Southwest for American Indian jewelry, and to state capitals to attend unclaimed safety deposit box auctioned jewelry. My partner had great talent in style and demand understanding, and tasked me with becoming proficient in the skill of gem authentication. Our dance was taking on real class.
Not only class, but more importantly enjoyment. We loved every bit of the excitement that went with our dances. Even more importantly, we loved all the people involved. The spectators, the participators, the buyers, the sellers, on and on.
Our dance was satisfying and rewarding on a pretty much consistent and equal level. We were experiencing audiences from so many areas. We were privy to being exposed to people who we had only seen in newspapers or other forms of public media.
We were living high…
The dance was in full Olympic mode and we were soaking it up, but as life dictates, it, too, has an ending.
Around 2007 my partner’s steps began to falter. At the same time, demand for Antique Jewelry began a downward trend. The combination slowed down our dance. The dance ended in early 2013, when my partner left to attend another, more permanent dance.
My good fortune, was that she left me with a better understanding of her moves. I could then seek and find them in others. It’s working, and until my dance time is up, I’m still dancing. Not the Paso Doble, but my best possible replica.
We’ll take up where we left off, when I join her in her permanent location.