It’s only been a week since my last post, but I have been compiling this list, which I just had to share with you. It’s a list of what I’ve learned in the past two weeks. I pass on this knowledge, hoping it will be of use to you at some point. I suspect there will be other lists in the future.
1. A senior living “club” is a church of the best variety. No dogma but age. Total forgiveness for your infirmities—more than forgiveness, an appreciation for the mortality that unites us. Everyone pretty much has everyone’s back.
2. The senior chorus: Singing is much more important than talent. Singing carves a necessary boundary between laughter and tears.
3. Maneuvering around a tiny space with your partner is a symphony of small accommodations, and is also church.
4. Headphones can save a marriage.
5. Fitting everything in closets and cabinets strengthens one’s spacial dexterity.
6. A desk is necessary only if you feel you need a symbol of your diligence.
7. Every time I’ve jumped off a cliff, so to speak, the landing has been better than I would have imagined.
8. There is no landing, only a different landscape.
9. Nobody here but the meal servers and me are in a hurry. They are the only ones who have a good reason.
10. The knees will agree to crouching down to get things out of the bottom of the closet only so many times, and the rising up slows as time goes by.
11. Billiards is great fun, in principle, but the half-bent position of the back results in much less fun.
Our granddaughter Abby is the last grandchild (actually there were two grandchildren at once, but this is the photo I have) to graduate from high school. She’s off to Skidmore for college. This photo has nothing whatsoever to do with this post. Maybe you could say it’s a study in contrast. :)
12. Energy is contagious. People bumping up against each other creates energy, even if they’re very old. The exercise class has good music. I wonder if people should live in communes, generally.
The P.S. . . .Speaking of mortality, I’m happy to report that Mortality, with Friends, has won the Gold Medal from Foreword Reviews in the category of essay. It is also a Midwest Book Award Winner in the category of memoir.