Aging Capriciously

Last year at my 40^th Demontreville Retreat, one of the exercises that we were given by the Retreat Master included a very challenging set of thoughts.  The worksheet for the activity was labeled as “A Testament.” I took the worksheet and instructions home with me.  It had fourteen tasks or reflections to complete.  I did not desire to complete them during the retreat.  It is now almost a year since my retreat, and I have decided to make the mental and emotional effort necessary to complete this “Testament.”

The worksheet started with these instructions:

Imagine that this is the last day of your life on earth.  In the time that you have left, you want to leave a “Testament” for your family and friends.  Each of the following could serve as chapter headings for your “Testament.”

4. These are the Things that I have lived for.

In my first reflection, I declared that “Things” were never very important to me.  However, this reflection forced me to look at some “Things” that have mattered to me in my life.  It is hard to admit that any things were ever really important since “Things” are so trivial in many respects.  Nevertheless, it is hard to exist without a few “Things.”  Thus, what are those “Things” which have really mattered to me, and a bigger question is why?  Here are a few of my favorite things and why they matter to me.

Raindrops on roses and whiskers on kittens

Bright copper kettles and warm woolen mittens

Brown paper packages tied up with strings

These are a few of my favorite things — By Julie Andrews, “My Favorite Things”

I love rain and stormy days:  I figured the “why out years ago.  On a nice day, my father would say “Get your ass outside and go play.  It’s too nice to be inside.”  Thus, I could only engage in my favorite activity (which was curled up with a good book) when it was raining, and I did not have to go outside.  To this day, I get a thrill when a rainstorm approaches.  I can’t tell you how happy it makes me to see the rain and feel the raindrops on my head.

I love books:  I buy more books than I will ever finish in my lifetime.  I have already at  every move given hundreds of books away.  Just holding a book gives me a sense of excitement that nothing else in life does for me.  The book pulses in my hand like a living thing saying, “Read me and learn.”  “Let me tell you about a million things that you do not know.”

I love a nap:  2 PM in the afternoon and I have nothing to do and no place to be.  I will take a nap.  I close my eyes wondering if I can really get to sleep and forty minute or so later, I wake up feeling energized and ready to continue taking on the woes of the world.  I am not sure where I get my joy of napping from.  Karen is not a napper, and I seldom can get her to take a nap with me.  It is a solo activity, but I guess it gives me a temporary respite from the trials and tribulations of everyday living.  Maybe it is just fun.

I love food:  I have never met a food that I did not like.  One of the great joys of life is going someplace different and trying foods out that I have never eaten before.  I have eaten the local foods in all 44 countries that Karen and I have traveled to.  I will try anything though I draw the line if it is still moving.  I have eaten several unknown species of Arthropoda (Bugs) in China and Korea.  I have had rattlesnake in Texas, fresh eel in Japan and one of my favorite Italian foods, Scungilli salad whenever I get back to visit my sister in Rhode Island.

I love music:  Is music a thing?  Generative AI has the following to say about this query:

“Music is a cultural universal that is a human-created meaning, not a fact or thing in the world.  It is the arrangement of sounds to create a combination of form, harmony, melody, rhythm, or other expressive content.  However, definitions of music vary by culture and throughout history, and there is no consensus on the precise definitions of the elements that define music.”

Nice to know what AI thinks.  Not sure it settled anything though.

Moving on with my thoughts, I find music sometimes soothing as with a Strauss waltz.  Sometime exciting as with the “Toreador Song” from Carmen.  Sometimes, a song reflects how I feel about life as with Ricky Shelton’s “I am a simple man.”  Sometimes, music reflects my sense of devotion for certain things.  I am always moved by national anthems like the “Star-Spangled Banner” and the “Marseillaise.”

I love what some call “World Music.”  I can spend hours surfing the various music offerings on YouTube.  I am always amazed at how much great music never seems to find its way into the US music stations.  As with food, I have never met a music genre that I did not like.  From Baroque to Grigorian Chants, to Asian, Latin, Hip Hop, Reggae and a hundred other music genres, I can always find an artist or musical piece that I fall in love with.  In Japan, it was Enka music.  In Portugal, I was Fado music.  In Spain it was the Tango music.  I could go on and on but every place in the world contributes to the store of great music that is out there.

Well, there you have it.  A few of my favorite things.  Perhaps I should add a few.

“Cream-colored ponies and crisp apple strudels

Doorbells and sleigh bells and schnitzel with noodles

Wild geese that fly with the moon on their wings

These are a few of my favorite things.”  By Julie Andrews

Next Reflection:    

5. These are the insights that I have gained in the school of life.