What's That Now Again?

I am in a Sunday lunch group that is rather eclectic in nature. There are three or four couples who are in their 60's, an older man and an older woman who are even older, a single woman, a gay couple, and a sixteen-year-old African American boy. We have a wonderful time each week discussing the politics of the day, movies, and literature mostly. Often times, since several in the group wear either one or two hearing aids, that means shouting down the table in order to communicate. It is not uncommon to hear the question, "What's that now again?" repeated a number of times during the course of a meal. One of our topics of conversation is the plethora of new books and movies that feature people our age as the protagonists.

Our observation of this phenomenon started several years back with Jack Nicholson's film About Schmidt. It has continued with novels such as David Guterson's East of the Mountains, Philip Roth's Everyman, and now for me, Alice Sebold's The Almost Moon. The movies of the year are Away from Her with Julie Christie, The Bucket List with Morgan Freeman and Jack Nicholson, and now tomorrow The Savages. All feature characters who are not aging well and are afflicted with physical impairment, memory loss, and/or dementia. I guess our group could continue to see the mindless date movies of the past, but somehow, the focus on aging seems to be addressing important psychological needs for us at this time of our lives.

I guess what I come away with is a renewed desire to live each day fully, to enjoy and savor the good health I currently have, and to enjoy the beauties of each passing season. I especially want to enjoy the relationships within my family: children, grandchildren, and siblings. The book of James in the New Testament reminds us that our lives are vapors; all we have to do is examine our photographs from a half century before to remind us of that fact. My husband and I will all too soon be the ones at the table who are shouting, "What's that now again?"