Show and Tell in Everyday Ramblings

Will you look at that sky? It is the most beautiful thing. We had clear skies almost all day on Thursday. And it was not cold! It wasn’t warm, but it also wasn’t cold.

I have had the biggest out in the world week since the before times. Three meetings in coffee shops, a haircut, and a train trip to Salem yesterday. Seeing actual people in person. Even a couple of discreet hugs. Oh, my goodness.

Yesterday was Kes, my sister’s 75th birthday. I do not know how that happened. But there she is. I didn’t want her to cook lunch so we had take-out make your own pizza and my mouth was healed enough that I could actually eat mine. Yum.

The permit on the wall repair in my place is hung up in the bureaucracy and that aspect of things has been extremely frustrating. I felt I needed to sequester the cats while I was gone all day yesterday in the bedroom so they would be safe if the workman took out the window. The felines were not happy with the arrangement, but they had everything they need and are more adaptable than they would lead one to believe.

So, we ride with it. At least right now it is the weekend and I have two full days of privacy and lack of disruption.

Mrs. Sherlock is doing her neighborhood clean-up this morning. She did pick me up from the train station last night, so I got to see Frieda and her for a quick catch-up.

Mostly though it has been about getting together with Walt and his friends and board members. They can’t decide if they want me on the board or not but in the meantime, I am getting to know them and they me. One of the things I enjoy about these people is that because of their lives either in service to others or in the arts I feel at ease being fully myself around them.

On Thursday at the hang out in the chic coffee shop weekly thing there were only five of us. I believe I was the only person under 75 in the group. I have seen groups of older folks meeting in coffee shops before, but I doubt any of them were looking at these beautiful triptych cards of Hieronymus Bosch paintings.

But maybe. I remember when Kes was in her 20’s, her friends were fascinated by them too. Walt had seen a movie the night before about the paintings. We were marveling at where the imagery was coming from. That got us talking about Pieter Bruegel and a movie about one of his paintings that Walt showed us the trailer for.

Then we talked about the Catholic church and heard a fascinating story about the mother of one of us had had repeated affairs as she was raising her kids but they, or her husband didn’t know and how it was a Catholic therapist that helped the husband come to terms with it and release his wounded anger before he died.

That got us talking about death. And the experience of actually dying. What Buddhism says, what artists have said over the years. Our fears and experiences with loved ones. I bet that is not a normal coffee shop discussion either. It was a loving, compassionate, and warm exchange.

We talked about graffiti and mural art. There is an extensive, even I would say excessive, amount of graffiti in the neighborhood where the coffee shop is. Later we exchanged pictures of a local mural many of us hadn’t seen. Fierce bears in a forest setting low on a building.

And then we talked about artificial intelligence and Chat GBT. They didn’t know about it, and it was a lively discussion full of concerns and creative ideas about this unknown world of machine learning we are entering rather rapidly.

I feel lucky to have found these people. It is a bit nerve wracking as we are not young and stuff is going to happen to each of us but that is no excuse not to engage, develop affections and hang out. The oldest board member was not there because he was hanging out with a new widow. He volunteers in a hospice.

Walt says, it is basically just a senior version of show and tell. What are you encountering culturally that you love, that knocks your socks off? Bring it to the group.

That is a bit like what we do here.

Last updated February 11, 2023