ProetryPlace Blog 46

Senior Moments Can Be Fun

    A favorite quote from a favorite, dear old aunt drifted into my consciousness this morning. “If you don’t have it in your head you must have it in your feet.”

    With the germ of a blog idea stirring in my waking mind, I arose early this morning, dressed quickly—khakis and a Tee, no shoes. While coffee brewed, I found one of several notebooks I use for raw writing—notes, ideas, first drafts. I placed it on the arm of my lazy-boy in the living room, a favorite venue for this activity, went to the kitchen to fill my coffee mug, add a dash of half-and-half, and returned.

    As I picked up the notebook, ready to sit and write, I realized the pen from the small table next to my writing chair had disappeared. I went again to the kitchen to pick one out of the container of pens and pencils we keep there for just such an occasion. While there, I remembered I’d forgotten to take one of my several pills last night before going to bed. I opened the vial and took the pill back to the living room to take with a sip of coffee, but returning there, realized I had not gotten the pen I had gone for.

    So, back to the kitchen. I selected a pen and, finally ready to write, returned yet again to the living room only to discover my notebook had now disappeared. While my neglected coffee cooled, I retraced my steps while trying to retrace my recent actions, and found the notebook on the kitchen table where I had laid it while opening the medication vial.

    At last, I sat and sipped the tepid coffee, pad and pen in hand, wondering what had prompted me to get up at this lonely hour before dawn.

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    Last night, Dolly and I watched the movie, Nebraska. In the opening scene a man shuffles slowly through the snow on the edge of the highway that leads eventually from Billings, Montana to Lincoln, Nebraska. The story centers on the obsession of this doddering and confused but damnably likeable old drunk to claim a million-dollar prize that a magazine subscription letter states he may have won.

    It is a story of dysfunctional individuals (the old drunk is certainly not the worst of them) and dysfunctional families whom we eventually came to love or hate as the story and the characters grew over the span of the days-long misadventure. In the end it is a story of human greed and avarice, but also of human spirit and kindness. It is the story of how an old man is impelled to seek just one more small miracle from life and of his family doing the best they can to deal with him and their own lives.

    I loved watching the family dynamics and listening to the Midwestern dialogue. One of my favorite lines from the old wife and mother character, spoken as the youngest son drives off with his father, bound for Nebraska: “You’re just like your father. Stubborn as a mule.” Why does that ring a bell?

    You don’t want to miss this movie.

    Watch it.

    Don’t forget.

    Now, what was that blog idea?

Richard Allen Anderson     http://richardandersonblogs.blogspot.com