Monday, March 18, 2024

Stolen!

My sister explained.  She had a burglary.  They came through a window.  They stole her brain. I actually didn't believe her.  Turns out she was referring to less speed in her memory retrieval.  I sympathize with her but everyone I know who is over 80 has similar experiences.  What is the name of that actress?  I always like her.  She was quite popular.  I know I know her name but I can't get it to come to mind.  It is on the tip of my tongue.  I think she had an affair with that actor.  She was the mother of what's- his-name.


I told my sister that there are moments when my lunch friends, all retired professors, are all sitting at the lunch table with their heads tilted back, gazing upward.  They are trying to make brain juice run down to their tongue, enabling recall.

Sunday, March 17, 2024

"A" instead of "the"

When listening to a statement, a plan, a defense, an attempt to persuade, I am often taken with the idea of changing a sentence that includes the word "the" to the word "a".  


Many people in the US are naturally drawn to whatever is exciting, outstanding in some say.  I guess it is a natural psychological tendency.  It is difficult to state a superlative without using the article "the".  Which book is your favorite?  Which team will win?  Which artist did you like THE most?


I am impressed with the more relaxed, less argumentative feeling that comes along with change in the little words.  Which book did you like? Which team will do well? Which artist did you like?  Having played with this sort of change, I have learned that it doesn't take much to invite broader, more open thinking.  If I add plurals, as in Which artists did you like?, I open the door to different sorts of liking: dramatic, original, memorable, etc.


We practice being "right" with good reason.  We want to be a source of useful, solid information.  When I ask what book is your favorite, you are asked to scrutinize your reactions and tease which author, athlete, date, subject, food REALLY is your favorite?  You have to unlease your careful comparer and weigh carefully.  So you can't answer until you have carefully weighed your reactions to "Oppenheimer" and to "Barbie". 

Saturday, March 16, 2024

We are pairing in our colds

We have often been united and we are getting united in our afflictions just now.  Is that romantic? We have vitamin C, sudafed (I had to show my id but I don't plan to learn how to use it to make "meth") and a renewed supply Kleenex.  I haven't been as sleepy all day as I was.  Just give us a while and we will be back to normal.

Friday, March 15, 2024

Sick

Two nights ago, I found that I was coughing and stopped up.  Today I mostly slept. I am slowly getting better.

Thursday, March 14, 2024

Living

Many books, videos and other tools aim at helping people develop a helpful attitude toward life and difficulties. I recommend developing an attitude based on a life as a path of adventure.  When we awake in the morning, we are beginning a day that has never been lived before.  If you want, you can emphasize similarities between what happens one day and what happens another.  Some people hope that the basic list of daily events doesn't change and that the quality and details of the day stay very much like what happened on other days.


But if you are old enough, you can remember what happened five or ten years ago.  It may be obvious that these days are quite different.  You can compare today or yesterday with days just after you were born, or as you started school or in the first days after agreeing to marry your partner.  


There has never been another you with your body, your hopes and doubts, interests and fears and there never will be. 


Being you is an adventure!!

Wednesday, March 13, 2024

Talking together

I attended a L.I.F.E.round table of open discussion today.  I think a rectangular table is okay.  My lunch group of all retired men used to sit at a round table and after we moved to a location that didn't have one, there were some mild complaints and wishes to find one again.  My hearing is worse than it was and too many statements and comments sound like the speaker has a mouthful of muffling mush.  If I ask about a word I didn't get, I usually get a calm, polite repetition but I know that can get annoying.


I suspect a criminal gang, a group of scientific researchers or a family facing a monetary shortfall sit and talk in somewhat similar ways.  Small groups talking together are one of humankind's main tools for solving problems and lifting spirits.

Tuesday, March 12, 2024

Immediate

I was born in the US a while back and I am now rather old.  I have been abroad some, but basically I am an American.  That means in addition to my natural basic impetuosity and male readiness, I learned that a fundamental measure of life proceeding as it should is immediacy.  When I type, it should be FAST!  When I cook dinner, I should prepare it FAST!  When I calmly sit back and enjoy the day, the moment, my life, I should get deeply in such enjoyment FAST!  


I am confident that seeking, promoting immediacy has its limits and downsides.  I learned from the very helpful book "Incognito" by David Eagleman (only $7 in Amazon ebooks or borrow from a library) that there is far more to me than just my mind.  The important parts of me, the parts that are needed to keep alive, are often unconscious.  A stethoscope can detect my heart rate and other devices can measure this or count that but many essential processes are not directly detectable nor controllable.


It is fully true that respiration, balance on just two feet, digestion and processes I am not aware of all matter to my old, wrinkled body.  There are sort of inbetween factors that are mostly outside my mind but are still quiet influencers that exert some control that is difficult to notice and very difficult to modify like habits, unconscious effects of hormones, levels of fatigue.  


Despite all that, not everything needs to be immediate.

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