What's the date today? Can you draw a cube? Face, velvet, church, daisy, red. What five words did I just say? Count back from 100, by seven. Repeat the following numbers. And now those five words again.
There, I've just given you some hints on how to ace the cognitive decline test. Because I did ace it and though I'm 71 and not 80, I can claim competence at sufficient levels to have me run for president, but for the fact that I don't much care for the job and am not qualified for it by virtue of having been born in Poland, among other things.
I agreed to the test while I was at a doc's office for something else. They say that they're trying to catch early dementia and Alzheimer's in people my age. It did lead me to wonder if I really want to ruin the rest of my decade by finding signs of possible decline. Would you want to know? Would I have felt compelled to tell you had I come in below 100%? Would you still read Ocean if you know its author was slipping?
All good questions! Going to doctors at my age is almost like going to music lessons -- there's no end in sight because they always think of other things they can test, which then leads you to consult with someone else, because my acing of the cognitive decline test to the contrary, at my age, you typically can expect to come in with subpar results somewhere along the line, and unraveling stuff is a forever thing. Ed doesn't engage the medical profession in this way and of course, the broader question then is -- why do I? It takes up time and today, I felt especially prickly about having to break up my morning because the day is just so beautiful! Here, follow along on my morning walk. It's the hour of the lilac, that's for sure!
(looking out the kitchen window...)
(the last tulip days...)
(allium coming into bloom: note the purple flower heads on long stems)
(the unbelievably awesome lilac, rewarding us for the three year pruning work we did on it)
(the early irises)
(but let's get back to the lilac!)
Breakfast, also with lilacs, on the porch.
We have another lilac -- a later blooming one, right behind the trash bins. It hasn't been doing well for years now and today I decided to do something about it and I guess I'm happy to have worked on it, but on the other hand, in digging around, I found a lot of rot in the trunk and root system. A metaphor for sure! Are we better off knowing that the lilac actually has a limited life span before it? On the flip side, I did dig out the rot and left behind some half healthy roots and branches and we put compost and chips on it and it's looking okay and maybe we will have saved it... Oh, the dilemmas forced upon us by nature!
More weed digging and pulling followed, but honestly, not too much because we are on the dry side of things. Weeds slow down when the rains stop. I'm hoping we're not headed for another drought this year! Watering plants can take even more time than digging up weeds.
And soon it's time to pick up Snowdrop.
("the tulips smell great too!")
The entire afternoon is spent reading chapter after chapter of The Night War (the new novel by Kimberly Brubaker Bradley). It's a World War II story, but, too, it's a story about overcoming adversity and channeling your inner strength to get through tough times. Helping kids develop resilience has to be one of the more important things we can do. Perhaps listening to stories about children suddenly confronting harrowing wars and tough life choices can help in this. [Or it can lead to nightmares! Hard to say how much of this is too much. Snowdrop brought up Anne Frank on our evening car ride. Clearly this stuff is on her mind.]
I leave you with an evening lilac photo. Because this moment really does belong to that ephemeral, scented purple bloom.
with love...
