Keep a cheerful heart

 

Tuna and rice bowl with furikake
All hidden under wonderful crisp watercress.

With all that’s wrong with our world, from the suddenly very frightening increase in climate change to Russia’s continuing aggression in Ukraine to the divisive political situation in our country and the crazies who are trying to run things, you’d think we don’t need anything more to worry about. Especially those of us who are in the third stage of life and hoping for a lot of peace and quiet, good times with the worries of the world behind us. It is not to be so.

My mom lived into her late eighties (since I’m approaching her years, I take heart from that). But I remember her saying to me that the trouble with living so long was that all your friends were gone. I can count many people, once big parts of my life, who have passed on, and I miss them. But lately my thoughts are less on those who died than those with serious health problems that cause me to worry about them a great deal. Right now I can count two broken shoulders, three serious falls (when I said that Jordan added two more older relatives of a friend who had both just taken bad falls), two cases of dizziness, a hip replacement in recovery, a case of unexplained weakness. It’s tempting to say none of these are life-threatening, but the truth is when you get to your eighties, anything can be life threatening. In recent months, for instance, I have learned how serious—and sometime fatal—a UTI is. They call pneumonia “the old man’s friend” for obvious reasons, but it seems to me that any number of conditions can fit that moniker.

And when physical problems hit us elderly—there, I said the word! —they seem to hit in clusters. An email from my best friend in high school and beyond tells me she fell, broke her shoulder, came home, and began experiencing dizzy spells to the point she couldn’t navigate in her own house alone. I am glad to report that she is better. My own brother a while back was in rehab after surgery on a knee, caught Covid, followed by pneumonia, followed by am array of ills including dizziness when he stood. I am so happy to report that he too seems to be doing better but it is after a long spell of being bedridden.

It’s as though there’s a monster out there, lurking, waiting for that one sign of weakness, which will be a signal to attack with an array of problems. I guess our option is to vote for health, watch for tiny symptoms before they turn into big problems, and keep a cheerful heart. Proverbs 17:22 tells us, “A cheerful heart is good medicine, but a crushed spirit dries up the bones.” It’s a philosophy I try to live by, but I think no matter how hard we try, each of us falls off that cheerful wagon from time to time.

I did have a healthy, cheerful dinner guest tonight. My friend, Mary V., who is a retired political science professor. We get into spirited political discussions, but of course we are both on almost the same page—I am a bit more enthusiastic about another term for Biden than she is, but she agrees that he has done remarkable things and that his expertise particularly on the international front is amazing. She is one of my friends who scorns Facebook—how I wish I could tell them to pick and choose and take advantage of the good stuff and the fun stuff! Anyway I was able to enlighten her on a couple of things I saw: one was a new name for Moms for Liberty (forgive my language): Assholes with casseroles! The other was James Comer’s whistleblower—the MAGA chair of the Oversight Committee has been crowing about a witness who would totally unmask the Biden crime family. Turns out the guy has been indicted on several counts, including acting as an unregistered foreign agent for China, and has skipped bail and is now a fugitive at large. I do love it when these out-of-control Republicans end with egg on their face.

Another experimental dinner tonight. Mary is one of the people for whom I can try out new things, and she inevitably likes them. Tonight was a rice bowl with tuna, flavored with soy and sesame oil and sparked up with watercress and furikake, a Japanese seasoning made with dried seaweed, dried fish, dried herbs, etc. I didn’t taste it much, but it did make the dish look pretty.

Now it’s late, I’ve been working on my neighborhood newsletter, and I’m ready to close out the day by reading a bit.

Sweet dreams to all, and stay cool, drink water, keep a cheerful heart—please! I already have enough people to worry about.