Learning and creativity are great partners for later life. Tthey helped save mine. I hope to convince you that it can do wonders for you. But first, you’ll need to think about people and things around you. Open your inner eyes, and ears. Study life as it unfolds before you. Give it thought, record it, jot it down. Learn a new language. Buy a computer, and find out about the world. Afraid computers are too complicated? Then go to your local library and get instructions. Go back to school. So many of our seniors are doing just that. In other words, exercise the mind. I’ll be posting some secrets that I learned. Thanks for dropping by.
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I sharpened a yellow pencil twelve years ago on my seventieth birthday. Pencils, pens, keyboards are good friends. We hang out together. Shoot the bull. Lie––little white ones. Get confused and laugh. Sometimes cry. Have a beer. That’s what friends are for, right?
So what’s this thing all about? Life, I mean –– the latter years. In a way, that’s what I’ve been exploring. The inside as well as the outside. The stuff we tend to hide –– even from ourselves.
I don’t consider this to be a blog. An ugly word at best. So ugly that Thesaurus.com won’t even show it. I’m thinking of a synonym: Chat? Not bad. BS? Twitter owns it. Talkfest? Belongs to Facebook. Jive? Hmm, kinda like it, as in repartee. Or when Ella Fitzgerald sang it. Sorta like the old days when we hung out on street corners and jived. As a writer, I like the sound of it. Words should have melody. Something that stirs the heart.
You with me?
Good.
Don’t expect the Kings English, though.
Got kicked outa too many learning rooms for that.
You say wasteful? A screw up? A minus kid?
Hey, that was life with a barroom mentor and a Wall Street kaboom–the first one.
That’s why this Jive thing. To tell about those days. They weren’t all bad.
When my fingers work, and try to figure out what in my head, I’ll chalk it on my digital blackboard. That is … if the devil doesn’t reach up and burn the tips.
So, what else can I say, except, drop by and say hello. Be glad to Jive with ya.
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