Reproduction vs. Debt Reduction

Last night, a representative from Citi called us at 8:15pm and didn't hang up.  I arrived home to a calm husband, having a rational conversation with someone on the phone.  I thought it was his mom, but no, it was 'Home Owner's Assistance Dept'.  Here is what I heard my husband saying on the phone,

Well, it seems that you guys have the ability to help us figure out a modification, or principle reduction, so what ever happens next, it is up to you.

What a change, not our calm-ness, but the person on the phone was seemingly helpful.  They did transfer him a few times, but in the end, there were more results when they call you, and not vice versa. If you call them, they can not help you.  If you call them and are paying your mortgage, they really can not help you.  Waiting for them to call you is hard.

We have now submitted a loan modification form that will help us be assigned a 'mortgage counselor', even though the modification they have in mind is useless to us.  This is help from the inside, instead of David cracking the egg of Goliath from the outside. Maybe they will be more helpful if there is one person, who is not haggard from the 4 million stories of despair and suffering from the borrowers.  I can pay my mortgage, so I can be calm and at ease on the phone, but many are jobless, have children dying of cancer, as well as losing their homes.  I can see that the gatekeepers at Citimortgage have to be callused individuals, and continue everyday with gate-keeping.  What a tough job!

The mystery of the mortgage industry, is much like the mystery of reproduction.  It is a learning process that, though shrouded in mystery, can end in understanding (and pain).  Though human reproduction is mysterious and miraculous, the mortgage industry is just expansive and mysterious.  In that way, the similarities end.

When I was very young, I was very confused about sex and reproduction.  I was clueless to its existence.  It was as if my mom just kept bringing home new people to live with us, and I had no idea how it was happening.  As I grew older, I learned more about the world and realized how a baby made its way into the world: it came out of women's belly-buttons (who didn't think that was how it worked for just a minute or two?).

As I grew even older, I became informed via the usual pubescent ways (I won't explain, my mom reads this).  Then I got married, and learned more, culminating at 23 years old,  and the moment my son was born.  At that point, I'd come a long way from the pre-schooler I was 20 years beforehand.

As I have been negotiating with Citimortgage, I have determined my understanding of the situation is nearly like my understanding of human sexuality and reproduction (though less rewarding and fun by a LONG stretch).  It is something to be learned about by experience, and from the inside-out.

I think that I might be age 6 in my development, having just learned that there is such a thing as a mortgage company, and suspicious there is more too it than I thought, just a few years ago.