"The Savages"

I came across an ad for a new movie that was just released called The Savages. It isn't playing locally heremin Phoenix and I'm sorry to see that. With only a limited engagement it's not going to reach a wide audience and it seems like a film that needs to be seen. It's about two adult children facing their father's poor health and having to place him in a nursing home.
This is something that my generation is going to be facing over and over and over again.
In fact, I'm giving a talk about this next month. My current book Second Chance [www.secondchancenovel.com] has this topic as its subplot and my new book [still under construction] is partly about that, too.
Calling us the sandwich generation is trite because the phrase has been used so much but it's true. We're being squeezed from both sides and it's tough.
We have no point of reference. We've never encountered these issues before. And, let's face it, seeing our parents grow old and feeble makes us face something we have never, ever wanted to acknowledge before - we are getting older.

Must be present to win

Don't ask me why but this phrase popped into my head this morning at 4 AM as I was rolling over and trying to go back to sleep. Must have been part of a forgotten dream but for some reason the phrase stuck with me.
How many times have we heard that phrase when entering a contest? I know for me it was always a turnoff. I have to be there? Shoot! Can't they just mail me my prize? Why must I sit through something I wouldn't have just to win something? None times out of ten, I wouldn't enter then. Too much work.
"Must be present to win"... sounds like a great title for a book [and I am hereby officially calling dibs on this one. It's mine.]. But I think it's also a great metaphor for life.
Call it Zen, call it practical but it hit home for me. We can't go through life just going through the motions and expect anything great to happen. You really have to be "present" in order to do anything that's going to be worthwhile.
In the vernacular of my youth - "Far out!"
I have been putting in more effort lately to make some life-long dreams a reality and it's working. I had done this "half-assed" in the past and didn't get very far. I see now that I needed to be "present" and make a concerted effort if I wanted to see the best outcome, not just an okay outcome.
Far out, indeed!

Giving

I just finished Pres Bill Clinton's new book Giving. Fantastic book!
Years ago, in her book Passages Gail Sheehy talked about the decades of the 50's and 60's of a person's life as being the ones where we would reflect and give back. Now the Boomers have arrived and are doing exactly that.
Pres Clinton's book gives some very good ideas and suggestions. How wonderful this planet would be if we all did even just a little bit of what he suggests.

The heat has broken and the nights are definitely cooler. Fall is here. While it's not quite like the Falls we had back East, it's beautiful nonetheless.
We're looking forward to sitting on the deck at night with a log in the chiminea and looking at the stars.

Well, we Arizonans deserve a medal. We have broken the record for the most days over 110 degrees in one summer.
We're happy. We're proud.
We're hot and ready to pass the honor to someone else.

Jerry

I sit here with tears in my eyes as I write about the passing of my friend's husband. I didn't know Jerry well but the short time that I knew him told me what a compassionate, sincere person he was.
My heart goes out to his wife and family. He fought a brave fight against cancer and his spirit will live on in his writing, the love he gave, the memories of him.
I can't imagine the feelings of loss his family is feeling now. I pray God's love helps them through this hard time.

My TV isn't as loud as it used to be.....

I sure hope it's about to break. Otherwise, the only other possible reason for the volume to be so low is that my hearing isn't what it used to be. And I know that can't be right.
My hearing is as acute as it was twenty - no, thirty - years ago. Ok, I've said it. It must be so.
All kidding aside, my health is great and I find it hard to believe I am the actual age that I am. But part of that is because I take responsibility for my health. I read, I research, I question.
One thing I don't do is sue my neighbor.
Huh? What does suing have to do with my health?
Maybe nothing, it's just my circular way of finding a way to gripe about the people who have decided to sue the young man with TB who flew across the Atlantic on a commercial jet a few months ago. Today I read that several of his co-passengers have filed suit for damages. PULEESE! Can we not find better things to do? In fact, taking this idiocy further, the room-Mate of one of the passeengers is also suing. He wasn't even on the plane.
Mind you, none of these people have come down with TB yet. Even if they test positive now, who's to say that they contracted it on that plane from that person?
I grant you, that was not the best thing that man could have done. I would probably be pretty steamed at him, too, if I found out I had sat next to him for those many hours. But his disease is now treatable since they have decided he didn't have the really bad strain, after all. I worked on a TB floor as a nursing student. My TB test went from negative to positive while I was a student. I was treated as a precaution but never came down with TB and my test is in fact negative now.
Did I sue the hospital? No, and I worked on that floor for days on end, several weeks in a row. It was just part of my training. My risk was far higher than a casual seatmate.
You just have to shake your head.