@lightsailing continued from [x]

A downfall in social standing was perhaps the most familiar and ridiculous cause for a woman’s suffering that Julia had found herself encountering in her many years upon this earth. Countless were the times when she found a woman seething against the limitless frustrations brought upon her by men and status, only to witness them recoil from the idea of escaping those very same fetters when the opportunity was offered to them. It was ever so fashionable to be frustrated – but to take action, well that was just unthinkable, wasn’t it? 

Yet for every twenty or thirty women who shared their laments and fled from the idea of changing their circumstances, there was always one who would take a stand for herself and come out beautiful for it. Julia had welcomed many a woman who had chosen to flee their husbands, their fathers, their brothers – and many more who had chosen to kill them outright. Each one moving on to build a life of their own making and design, with no voice louder than their own on what they could and could not do. And as ever, Julia found herself curious to know if she had found another such woman – or simply one of many who would blur away into the statistically forgettable.

“That is only true if bottomless vaults of money mean anything to you,” Julia pointed out blandly. “If money and social standing mean more to you than your right to choose, your ability to live life in a manner that does not hold you back, then you have no reason to lament your position. You have made your choice in that case – to be miserable about it is hypocritical at best, wouldn’t you say?”

Julia smiled, leaning so she could take a better look at the ‘creeps’ in question. “People who live in luxury often need to imagine their own hardships to even have a taste of a life that is interesting. Or – in cases like theirs – create their own little dramas. The question that raises then, is whether or not you want to remain the tool of their entertainment, or change the rules of the game entirely.”