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Family
It was late winter of 2009 and the frequent wet and cold was fraying the family nerves. The Global Financial Crisis which hit hard in 2008 was continuing to bit deep into every family’s finances and investments. A great angst swept through the middle-income families the most, having the most impacted through significant investment losses. Ashwyn Robertson was one of the lucky few, but who was very anxious to change his young family’s views of finance as an insurance policy.
Ashwyn Robertson paced around the Rumpus room, occasionally pulling at his beardless chin or scratching his balding head. Then he would sit down, stare out the window, and give a deep sigh. His intellectual mind, as a Lecturer in Mass Communications and the Media, at Sydney University, was on overdrive on a journey. The only problem; it was overheating and needed a safety valve to stop. There was an issue that had increasingly occupied his mind over the years, especially as his family size grew and the financial burdens increased. He felt he was very close to a possible resolution, but he quite couldn’t get his fingers on that something, so vital to achieving the “viola! I’ve got it!” experience.
His wife, Jill, sat in the lounge chair breastfeeding their 6-month-old daughter, Lisa. She watched Ashwyn carry on for about 10 minutes but soon tired of it and wasn’t impressed with Ashwyn’s antics, especially since he was not communicating what was bothering him. During that period, she had already stopped herself five times, from asking what was bugging him just to give him space.
She refrained herself by observing the two younger children, the four year old, son, Matt excitedly playing the Monopoly game with the help of her seven year old sister, Rhonda. Then there was Dotty, the dog, seated watching excitedly and wagging her tail.
The dear old thing, Dotty, she thought. She had brought so much joy over the years to the whole family. She was pretty old now, just dread the thought what we’d do without her. She was like the resident grandmother of the home. She was a Christmas present by the children’s grandmother, Betty. From the days when she was a pup until now, she had gone through all the life of the family like a sixth child, even eating at the table, thanks to the insistence of the children and herself. As she grew older, she became like a true grandmother doting over everyone whenever they came home every evening. She would seem to count them all one by one, as they entered the house. A kiss and a cuddle to welcome was the standard routine. If someone did not come in by her bedtime, she would pace up and down the house restlessly whining, inconsolably. She would go from person to person jabbing them on the knees with her cold nose, or putting her face on their laps if they were sitting down, as if to ask, “What has happened to the member of the family who was still missing?” Each person would have to rub her on the head and say everything was alright with the missing person, mentioning them by name, repeatedly. She would then go and rest her head on another person quietly for about 10-15 minutes, before starting the whining again and going from person to person. They all loved her for it. Her caring ways often seemed to surpass family squabbles and sibling rivalries. She would not hesitate to bark, as if to rebuke them whenever an argument started. She could quickly detect an argument brewing and begin to whine and growl while staring down the trouble causers.
The children were carrying on, sometimes arguing, sometimes laughing. After another 5 minutes, Jill could not help herself and blurted out, “What is bothering you Ashwyn? Stop mumbling and pacing about, you’re making me dizzy!”
Ashwyn stopped in his tracks and turned around with a half worried look, and a half smile, and after a deep sigh, started what seemed like verbal vomit. It gave Jill such a rude shock that she wished she hadn’t asked him to speak. On and on he ranted, not in anger but with a sense of frustration and yet inquisitively.
“Everyone is on a journey!” he proclaimed. “You go and watch the movies and they are on a journey. You read a book - they are on a journey. You hear a hit song described by the composer, during an interview, as a journey of both the good and bad experiences of life they have gone through or are going through. Even politicians say the country is in an economic journey with not so good times now, the fault of the previous government’s policies, of course, they will add…but, but they will now take us to the good part of the country’s journey with their better policies. Kids don’t want to know about any journeys. Only parents and adults do journeys. If ever they even bother to think about it, they only ask “Are we there yet?”
“Stop!” Jill interrupted “I’ve had enough. Time-out! I will leave you to mull that one. I will stick to the here and now. The baby’s plenty and at the moment her bottom has just completed a journey and needs a change of nappy” With that she got up and left.
Ashwyn slumped to his chair and stared at the two kids playing monopoly for what seemed an eternity and then, his eyes got brighter and his face more relaxed as a broad smile swept across his face. He suddenly noticed his kids stopped playing and were staring back at him very quizzically.
Matt blurted out, “Want to join our monopoly journey, dad? It is lots of fun!”
“Yeah, you can join the journey to lots of moneys and houses and, and, hotels and, and..er..and, I know, airports! Wow! I like this type of journey. It’s my type of journey,” Rhonda piped in triumphantly.
Matt, however, wasn’t too happy about all these things that Rhonda has been able to name which to him meant she already owns them in the game.
“What about me?” Matt protested, “I want some airports and I like aeroplanes in the airports and lions animals in the parks. Rooaarrr”
Ashwyn came towards the kids and bent down staring them in the face. With eyes wide open, “You kids are fantastic! You have given me a great idea about a journey for the who-o-ole family. I need to go away and start organising for the journey right away! Isn’t that exciting!”
“Oh, Oh! Dad a journey? We’re going on a journey. Can we go camping? Or go to Grandpa and Grandma’s house? Matt shouted.
“What journey, and where are we going, dad? quizzed Rhonda more thoughtfully. She loved the thought of going on a journey but wasn’t quite prepared emotionally for the packing up and cleaning her room. Something they always did before leaving. Bother! I hope it is a fun place. It usually is whenever dad springs a surprise trip away, like when they went to the Theme Parks at the Gold Coast. The joys of that journey brought a hopeful smile across her wary face. She stared up at her dad, waiting for a reply.
“It’s not that kind of a journey, darlings, this is a different kind of journey. A special kind of journey which will take years and years and, we will all-l-l have to help by doing different things at different times.” Ashwyn replied.
“Sometimes, at night and sometimes in the daytime?” Matt checked with a suspiciously screwed up face.
Ashwyn looked up at the ceiling with a serious, thoughtful and screwed up face and then in a flash replied with a serious look. “Yea-a-a-h, of course, Matt, of course! It won’t always be fun, but it will end will lots and lots of fun times, at the end, if we all work together to bring success in this journey. But, I have to go and workout how this journey will begin, what we’ll need, when do we begin and where is our first place to go and how we’ll know we have arrived there.”
“Will there be a MacDonald’s there, dad? Matt interrupted.
“I don’t like Maccas, I prefer Kentucky Fried Chicken because it’s nicer” Rhonda rebuked.
“It’s none of those,” Ashwyn responded bemused at their kids understanding of the word journey.
“I’ll
