Musings for November 2010

Two incidents set me back during the month of October, and I am feeling some repercussions. The first thing was that I started going through pictures of events in our family taken over many years. I have been putting them in boxes for years, and finally decided it was time to get them out and put them in albums. Of course, we didn’t put dates on some of them, so I am also doing a time line of my life. Most of the events are good, but some are not so good.Holidays, graduations, trips, anniversaries, etc. were reviewed with pleasure and fond memories. The sadder events were remembered with nostalgia and not-so-fond recollections. It is the cycle of life; however, and is part of the fabric of my life. Most of the fabric is bright, colorful and strong. Some is less so, and the fabric held a few rents when the less- than- happy events happened. It is my life and although I had tears over some pictures, I also laughed a lot and smiled even more. It is quite an experience to review life this was, and I mostly enjoyed it, tears, laughter and all that falls between.

I also have had a lot of back pain and went to my chiropractor, who sent me to my medical doctor, who sent me to an orthopedic doctor. So I start physical therapy next week and will do that twice a week for a month until I go back to the orthopedic doctor so he can judge the results. He talked quite a bit about surgery and injections, but I’m not ready for that yet. We’ll see.

My son said to me one day, “Mom, why are so bent over? You always had such good posture.” And then I knew along with the pain and tiredness of my back, it was time to do something. Several of my friends had noted that I was not standing as straight as usual, and that along with the pain got me to make the appointment. I also noticed that my energy level was very low. I came home from work and took a nap, or read a while and didn’t feel like doing anything, so I walked Kaja, read some more and went to bed. Not very ambitious of me! I hope something will help my back, so I don’t have to have anything major done. Getting old is really a pain in the back, knees, and other places. Arthritis is a real life and event stealer.

Work is going well, and I still enjoy working with children at the Center. Of course I work just three or four hour shifts, so I really don’t have a chance to get tired there. Plus I love working with the children. I think when I face my house and realize that I need to vacuum, dust and do all that necessary stuff, then my back really hurts. I’m sure if I just did it and didn’t think about it, it would be better. My dream is to have my house cleaned, so I don’t even have to think about cleaning it myself. It seems to me that as we get older time shrinks. Or maybe it just takes longer to get things done, and I would much rather do something else with my time, so it does seem that time diminishes as I age.

I haven’t read many books this month, because I am actually trying to catch up with magazines. The two that I like to cover well are Newsweek and the New Yorker, and they come often enough that I have trouble getting them read. It is difficult to read all that I want to out of them, so I need some extra time. I find that if I read them, the newspaper, listen to National Public Radio and watch WTVP I can decide issues for myself. I can not believe how many people quote Fox News as if that was an authority. I am amazed how many people don’t seem to think for themselves, but just listen to one source and think that is the right way to think. I have found that I simple can not listen to anything about the Tea Party, because it is so cockeyed and crazy.

I’m volunteering at Global Village right now in Peoria Heights and find that I enjoy the people who visit the store, because they are people who think for themselves, are intelligent, well-informed and make good decisions. We are a fair trade store, which means the products we sell are bought through cooperatives, so those who grow or make the items we sell get a fair price and can live a better life. We also are all volunteers, and hope to create a better world by acting locally and thinking globally. The store is sponsoring a program called ‘The Dark Side of Chocolate” on Tuesday, November 2nd at 7:00 p.m. at Lakeview Branch Library. This is a program that explains how youth are still forced to labor in the chocolate trade as slaves to produce the chocolate with which most of us are familiar. Two of the worst offenders are Hershey and Nestles. Come and hear how you can become a better consumer and advocate for fairness around the world.