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Editorial, Spring 2007 issue of PAGES:
"Looking Around Me"
Guidelines for Living
1. Give people more than they expect and do it cheerfully.
2. Don't let a little dispute injure a great friendship.
3. When you say, "I'm sorry," look the person in the eye.
4. When you say, "I love you," mean it.
5. Don't laugh at anyone's dream [but do laugh - often].
6. Say "bless you" when you hear someone sneeze.
7. Smile when picking up the phone.
The caller will hear it in your voice.
I added the bracketed words for number five because I need it, serious-minded as I am! My funnier friends can administer healthy belly laughs. Nora Ephron made me laugh with her recent book, I FEEL BAD ABOUT MY NECK. I identify - but admit that vanity at my age is not so funny!
This task of directing MARP has cemented an idea in my own mind: As we "grow older" we must "grow up." It cannot be "all about me" - a characterization of the Boomer generation which is unfair for most Boomers, perhaps. But it is also true of too many of us who go a little ahead of them. I noticed this morning: next month is Older Americans' Month. I hope we see it as a time for "God's older people" to make a difference - in our families, congregations, communities, country, world.
This week the local paper featured a 93-year-old who has written a book, SHUT UP AND LIVE - an in-your-face title for certain. Marion Downs' ideas resonated once I took in the photo of her on the floor, legs in tights: To live well and long, deal with and then ignore aches and pains; move on with confidence; get a life that is a little crazy; laugh along with caring for others (Marion's care-giving challenge was big); don't obsess on genetics. Finally, "exercise, exercise, exercise."
And of course she adds, "Keep your mind nimble." Have you noticed the sudden appearance of zillions of Sudoku puzzles (not crosswords but cross numbers) promising to "increase your brain power"? I do respect all this effort: "You got that hard Sudoku in 15 minutes? Wow!"
I also see relationships keeping the mind nimble - even in times of figuring out how to agree or disagree agreeably. Serving others (SOOP anyone?) brings healthy stretches of mind, spirit - and sometimes of body. "Write for your life!" charges Anna Quindlin in a recent Newsweek column. Write to make sense of yourself, write to clear your mind, write to keep in touch with family. Recount history, record memoirs, tangle with
theology, tell story, create poetry.
"Engage the mind ["spirit"] and the body follows."
— Helen L. Lapp
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