Some Thoughts For The Day.
How beautifully leaves grow old. How full of light and color are their last days.
-- John Burroughs
To me -- old age is always ten years older than I am.
-- Andre B. Baruch
To know how to grow old is the master work of wisdom, and one of the most difficult chapters in the great art of living.
-- Henri Frederic Amiel
There's a difference between progress and change, as I've always noted to anyone that was silly enough to listen to my ranting. Progress moves you forward, while change merely bulldozes (sometimes figuratively, sometimes literally) what was for what is to be. I am a firm believer in history, and recognizing, remembering and respecting the past, and things older than myself.
One of my favorite anecdotes about history comes from an encounter my daughters and I had with a desk clerk at the Radisson Schwartzer Bock Hotel (with a capital "H") in the heart of Wiesbaden, Germany. My babies wanted to know how old the hotel was...and for once, Daddy had overlooked a bit of trivia. Since I had no real working use of the German language, I asked my oldest daughter to ask the clerk.
"The hotel was built in 1482," said the clerk.
My daughter turned to me and asked, "Daddy...Is that older than the Embassy Theatre?"
To my baby's way of thinking, Fort Wayne's Embassy (built in 1928) was the oldest possible building she knew...a theatre that Daddy had gone to see movies in, and Grandma and Grandpa had gone to see movies in, and even Great Grandma Sherwood had visited in her youth.
Why the obsession with age, history and change today? Because my children's great grandma's health is slowly failing. A recent fall left her complaining about neck and head pain (this a scant two weeks shy of her 90th birthday on July 8th.) Catscans and MRIs indicated no fractures, but they did bring to light an extreme calcification of her neck bones and arthritis so advanced that the catscans couldn't even penetrate.
Today, I was notified that Grandma can't be left alone on her current pain medication, so my staying with her is no longer enough to keep her independent. She's going to stay with my aunt and uncle for an indefinate time...possibly on her way to an assisted living facility.
My grandmother is old, frail, and long past her prime....and yet, it's hard to acknowledge that fact. She is fierce about her independence, and works every day to keep vibrant and active....right down to fretting over what to fix me to eat (and if you know me, you know that I don't miss many meals...no need to worry about that.) Like so many things that are old, some would choose to look past her, with an eye on the future. Some members of my extended family have already done so.
But because I love my grandmother, I am going to continue to hold true to my passion for remembering, and respecting the past...and try to do what is best for her. Whether that means making accomodations to keep her independent...or turning her over to others who can do a better job of making her final time a better time. In that way, I can show my respect to my grandmother for all she's done for me.
I hate change.
-- John Burroughs
To me -- old age is always ten years older than I am.
-- Andre B. Baruch
To know how to grow old is the master work of wisdom, and one of the most difficult chapters in the great art of living.
-- Henri Frederic Amiel
There's a difference between progress and change, as I've always noted to anyone that was silly enough to listen to my ranting. Progress moves you forward, while change merely bulldozes (sometimes figuratively, sometimes literally) what was for what is to be. I am a firm believer in history, and recognizing, remembering and respecting the past, and things older than myself.
One of my favorite anecdotes about history comes from an encounter my daughters and I had with a desk clerk at the Radisson Schwartzer Bock Hotel (with a capital "H") in the heart of Wiesbaden, Germany. My babies wanted to know how old the hotel was...and for once, Daddy had overlooked a bit of trivia. Since I had no real working use of the German language, I asked my oldest daughter to ask the clerk.
"The hotel was built in 1482," said the clerk.
My daughter turned to me and asked, "Daddy...Is that older than the Embassy Theatre?"
To my baby's way of thinking, Fort Wayne's Embassy (built in 1928) was the oldest possible building she knew...a theatre that Daddy had gone to see movies in, and Grandma and Grandpa had gone to see movies in, and even Great Grandma Sherwood had visited in her youth.
Why the obsession with age, history and change today? Because my children's great grandma's health is slowly failing. A recent fall left her complaining about neck and head pain (this a scant two weeks shy of her 90th birthday on July 8th.) Catscans and MRIs indicated no fractures, but they did bring to light an extreme calcification of her neck bones and arthritis so advanced that the catscans couldn't even penetrate.
Today, I was notified that Grandma can't be left alone on her current pain medication, so my staying with her is no longer enough to keep her independent. She's going to stay with my aunt and uncle for an indefinate time...possibly on her way to an assisted living facility.
My grandmother is old, frail, and long past her prime....and yet, it's hard to acknowledge that fact. She is fierce about her independence, and works every day to keep vibrant and active....right down to fretting over what to fix me to eat (and if you know me, you know that I don't miss many meals...no need to worry about that.) Like so many things that are old, some would choose to look past her, with an eye on the future. Some members of my extended family have already done so.
But because I love my grandmother, I am going to continue to hold true to my passion for remembering, and respecting the past...and try to do what is best for her. Whether that means making accomodations to keep her independent...or turning her over to others who can do a better job of making her final time a better time. In that way, I can show my respect to my grandmother for all she's done for me.
I hate change.
posted by Steve "Tiny" Michaels at 2:22 AM
1 Comments:
Embrace change.
Change is the only spice that renews our spirit and makes us get out of bed everyday! Remember the movie Groundhog Day? You of all people have never been content to do the same thing over and over and over and, well, you get the idea.
Take solace in the fact that Grandma has had a good, long journey. Sometimes the path is short and sweet, sometimes long and treacherous, mostly a combination of both. Just make sure she knows how you feel while you can still tell her and make her as comfortable as possible.
I'm choosing cremation but if I were to have a tombstone it would be this: "More than some, less than others." Fits just about everything I can think of.
Roundhead
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