Brief encounters

I enjoyed sharing some positive aging perspectives and a couple of the songs from A New Wrinkle today at the AARP's Vital Aging conference for southern Oregon. Several hundred people attended.

Just before I got ready to leave one of the workshops, I saw Jean Mountaingrove, whose 88th birthday party I participated in recently. She was wearing an Audacious Aging button from the kit I had given her as a birthday present. I commented on the button, and she asked, "Now where did we get that?" touching the button with her fingers. "I gave it to you," I told her.

We exchanged another pleasantry and I said goodbye. I walked outside, feeling a bit sad. Loss--there is a lot of it in aging.

As I walked to my car, I met a cheerful woman navigating with a walker. She thanked me for my performance. "The lectures are great, but what you did really got to the essence," she told me with a warm smile. "I loved the songs."

When I got home, I decided to take a walk. The sky was overcast but it was not really that cold out. I saw an older man coming toward me, walking on the opposite side of the street. He wore a baseball cap and kept his head down. When we were closer to each other, he raised his head. I saw that he had sunglasses on. With a big smile, he looked at me and asked, "Well do you think we are doing any good?" I was taken aback by his comment at first. "I sure hope so," I told him. And I do.


P.S. You might enjoy reading the Sage's Play monthly newsletter for November
Wishing you a happy and rejuvenating Thanksgiving time.