Writing and Dementia
True confessions time: I’m a fan of mystery novels – most often British. And so naturally my eye is grabbed by a portrait of Dame Agatha Christie in The New York Times Sunday Magazine recently. I was even more drawn by the headline Literary Alzheimer’s. Apparently last March a pair of academic researchers analyzed the text of Christie’s fourteen novels and determined that “Christie’s lexicon dcreased with age, while both the number of vague words she employed and phrases she repeated increased”. Authors Lancashire and Hirst suggest “”the question is not early style versus late style. but the late style of someone who is elderly but healthy versus the late style of someone who is elderly but not cognitively healthy’”. Lancashire and Hirst intend to analyze the work of P.D. James (80+ and healthy) as well as authors such as Ross MacDonald (known to have suffered from dementia).
This is all the more interesting in light of the Nun’s Study and its insights into lanaguage sophistication in youth and the likelihood of developing observable signs of dementia in later life.
Confessions of the episodic
It’s been awhile. But maybe that’s my character: sometime inspirations crowd in from everywhere. Other times they seem to disappear into the hurly-burly of the everyday. It isn’t that I care less about creativity and aging and dementia. I do. But the inspiring events, readings, thought come back and therefore so am I.
A Shame and A Crime
The impeccably-dressed, silver-haired woman said “Ah, that something we seniors fear more than death.” And what is that ? That is dementia. You might have guessed that, seeing that I so often write about Alzheimer’s Disease and other memory-robbing, personality-stripping medical diagnoses. And I am now but in the unusual reflection that is the case of Brooke Astor and her son Anthony Marshall.
I am always trying to find ways to understand humanity’s (okay mine too) fascination with the lives of the rich and the powerful. It is entertaining but sometimes it is also a useful mirror through which we can see ourselves, if we dare look. And in the Astor trail do we dare look?
What might be see? A rich old lady. A rich old man. Whispers of a greedy daughter-in-law. But we also see trust abused – for Mrs. Astor trusted her son, her only son, to take care of her and the court has now found that he cared more for himself than for her. We see the vulnerable abused – for few can be more vulnerable than the elderly who lose their independence of mind, of spirit, of self. It is a shame. And a crime.
Surprising advice from a Diva!?
I know the world wide web is a place where so much can be learned but, frankly, I often prefer a newspaper. Why? Maybe it’s because I can cradle it in my hands. And so often a good newspaper (much less a great one) will bring information I can’t or don’t see any other way. There’s too much on the web for me to find it!
And to this category comes an article on Danielle de Niese, a young soprano who is taking the opera houses of Europe and the United State by storm. I’m fascinated by her life, her work, her training but what catches my eye is her philosphy of the moment:
Her watchwords of the moment were from some Stairmaster pop from the ’90s called “You Get What You Give,” by the New Radicals: infectious downbeat, 4/4 time. Softly she began to sing: “Don’t let go, you got the music in you…Don’t give up, you got a reason to live/Can’t forget, we only get what we give!”"
We only get what we give: a philosophy of creativity. A philosophy of life.
Creativity in many forms
Since representing creative aging at that local health fair I’ve been pondering what activities are considered creative. So many people instantly demur when asked to finish this statement: “When I feel creative, I ____”. So many say ‘Oh, I’m not creative” and then in conversation admit to the most interesting and creative avocations or loves. So why not admit it first? I don’t know. But that makes me think that creativity needs its own marketing campaign. Well, I’m trying.
A recent glance at The Washington Post revealled wonderful creativity and creative aging: She’s 90 and still a milliner – creating and making the most wonderful hats.
Another story of unexpected creativity I heard on National Public Radio: a man constructed a usable paddleboat from purchasing only exterior plywood and waterproof glue. He used the drivetrain of a riding lawnmower and the boat can navigate in 6 inches of water. The paddle rides up and over rocks. Now I haven’t been able to find the story again (alas) but I’m looking (or is it listening?). Now that’s creativity!
Collaboration
“To work together with others to achieve a common purpose” (so says Wikipedia), literally “with work” from Late Latin via French. The word now has an odd whiff, for it acquired the sense of treasonous involvement with the enemy during World War Two.
On the other hand, I’ve been having many collaborative experience recently and am being reminded of the incredible power collaboration usually generates. Perhaps in my continuing thoughts about the good, challenging Group-Stitching Mantra workshop are really as much about the power of collaboration as anything else. Something special happens when people make ‘common cause’ and work together. My grandmother would say ‘many hands make light work’ and that’s true. But more than that many hands make magic. Honestly one person stitching while reciting a mantra aloud seems foolish; when many do it, it’s powerful.
Defining Moments
In preparing for an upcoming health fair (where I’m to help represent creative aging) I’ve been thinking about Heinz ketchup. It’s been made for more than 130 years and yet it’s advertised daily. Wouldn’t you think they’d think we know about it by now? Well, Heinz is probably right. It’s necessary constantly to introduce yourself, your purpose and products, to the marketplace.
So ketchup puts a different slant on creative aging. It’s not just figuring out how to say what it is and why one should care, it’s necessary to do this constantly and consistently, briefly and noticeably. But how? Especially in a culture that seems to contain skepticism about creativity itself.
Opportunity Knocks
Greensboro's city symbol
Logo for Greensboro Public Library
GREENSBORO PUBLIC LIBRARY
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE Contact: Steve Sumerford: 373-3636
GREENSBORO, NC (August 31, 2009)
LifeVerse Project Needs Volunteers
Library Program Pairs Volunteers With Seniors
Training Sessions Offered in September
LifeVerse, an inter-generational project that uses poetry and verse to create conversations between volunteers and older adults, is beginning its third year of providing poetry programs in retirement centers, nursing facilities, places of worship, libraries and coffee shops throughout the city.
“The program has been very popular, both for the volunteers and the participants,” notes Assistant Library Director Steve Sumerford. “For volunteers, this is an ideal opportunity to learn from and enjoy the company of an elder, and for the elders it is an opportunity to reminisce and recall poems, songs, scripture verses and rhymes of earlier years.”
The program received national recognition when the American Library Association selected LifeVerse as the best library diversity program in the country for 2009.
Volunteers will be trained to be effective facilitators and then assigned to work with a small group of older adults. Volunteers are required to attend two training sessions: September 12 and 19 from 3-6 pm or September 14 and 23 from 6-9 pm. All training will be held at at Central Library. “Volunteers do not need to be poetry experts,” said Sumerford. “We will provide all the training they need to lead conversations and group poem-writing exercises.”
All volunteers are asked to pre-register by September 7. For more information about this program, contact Steve Sumerford at 373-3636 or visit our website at www.greensborolibrary.org.
A Hero
Our heros reveal something about us. They can reveal our interest, and our priorities. We shape ourselves by those we admire and emulate.
Today, September 7th, is the birthday of one of my heros: Grandma Moses. Anna Mary Robertson Moses was born in 1860 and died in 1961. She began painting at 78 and ceased painting just before her death.
Opportunity
Perhaps I can enourage creativity at any age by chronicling creative freeways (what’s the opposite of a barrier?) in my locality:
Nancy McLaughlin in The News & Record profiled an effort to have singers share their love of music with the community in a new community chorus.
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