Creatively Aging

It’s just a story…

creativeaging — Sun, 08 May 2011 01:29:06 +0000

I heard a story told that rings true: a friend who also works with seniors told me someone who was a resident in the senior living community where she works. This woman had been an artist, an amateur, a Sunday painter, in her earlier years. She no longer painted. But the woman’s daughter entered her mother’s paintings in a show at their church. The satisfaction, the happiness, the pride of this 80+ woman was heartening to hear and see, I understand. She had to hang her show. She had to attend the opening. She was still an artist. She was still someone.

Why can’t that be for all?

We should make it so!

Poetry as…

creativeaging — Thu, 28 Apr 2011 18:28:52 +0000

The American Academy of Poets tries to do us all a favor in the month of April. It brings poetry to the front and center through National Poetry Month and its many (clever) facets (did you miss Poem Flow?). I subscribed to the poem-a-day e-mail and while some did nothing for me, some did. And I met a lot of poets, as I prefer to, through their carefully crafted words. It’s almost the end of the month but I can say…this is my favorite:

Dark Matter
by Jack Myers

I’ve lived my life as if I were my wife
packing for a trip—I’ll need this and that
and I can’t possibly do without that!
But now I’m about
what can be done without.
I just need a thin valise.
There’s no place on earth
where I can’t unpack in a flash
down to a final spark of consciousness.
No place where I can’t enter
the joyless rapture
of almost remembering
I’ll need this and I’ll need that,
hoping to weigh less than silence,
lighter than light.

Everyday life has a different feel if it is to be packed in a “thin valise”. Even for those of us who think we’re not “what can be done without”.

Thank you Jack!

Writing and Dementia

creativeaging — Sat, 26 Dec 2009 18:05:34 +0000

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

creativeaging — Tue, 15 Dec 2009 14:39:09 +0000

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

creativeaging — Sun, 11 Oct 2009 18:38:31 +0000

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!?

creativeaging — Mon, 05 Oct 2009 14:15:26 +0000

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

creativeaging — Thu, 01 Oct 2009 14:46:00 +0000

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

creativeaging — Thu, 17 Sep 2009 01:33:36 +0000

“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

creativeaging — Sat, 12 Sep 2009 09:13:42 +0000

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

creativeaging — Tue, 08 Sep 2009 21:29:13 +0000

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.