Healthy Aging Series: Season 11 Teaser!
I don’t know when I first watched, “The Blues Brothers.”
It came out in 1980, but I was in Bible College then, so I’m kinda thinking I didn’t watch it in the theater because the college I went to had strict rules about not going to the theater, although they did approve going to see, “Chariots of Fire.“
After graduating college in 1983, we moved to Eastern New Mexico to serve in a small church in Arch, New Mexico, near Portales, and yes, they had a video rental store there, and yes, you had to rent the VHS player that connected to the two little screws where the UHF antenna connected to watch movies, and yes, they had the “Blues Brothers,”
and yes, I watched it.
BTW: I had forgotten about the VHS/UHS antennas for the old classic televisions. One antenna for channels one through 25, and the UHS antenna for all the channels higher than 25. Geez, does that make me feel old?
OK, back to the “Blues Brothers.”
It was the funniest thing I had ever seen, and the funniest scene, at least at the top 10 funniest scenes in the movie, was the orphanage scene with “The Penguin,” Sister Mary Stigmata.
The whole scene is hilarious, especially if you went to a Catholic school like I did. I loved her brief verbal spanking she gave Jake and Elwood.
“I prayed so hard for you. It saddens and hurts me that the two of you young men whom I raised to believe in the 10 Commandments have returned to me as two thieves, with filthy males and bad attitudes. Get out! And don’t come back until you’ve redeemed yourselves.“
OK, this isn’t a blog for reviewing classic movies, so what’s my point?
This is a blog for healthy aging, and this is the tease for Season 11, which I’m calling,
“Aging with an Attitude.”
Maybe, the light just came on. Attitudes? Bad attitudes?
I wonder what Sister Mary Stigmata would say about people today, and more specifically about people who are aging? Bad attitudes?
There is a prevailing attitude that I see in our country that affects people as they age. It’s cynicism. This season is about how to age without becoming a cynic.
I’ve broken down the season with three attitude adjusters:
Aging and Stoicism
Fitness Revolutionaries
Finding Wisdom from Folk Tales
Kind of a hodgepodge, but I think they will all complement each other. I’ll rotate the three attitude adjusters throughout the season and will probably throw in a few more episodes to include a healthy ager interview and then just some other stuff I’ve written about bad attitudes.
Attitude Adjusters
Stoicism
I’m using two books for 10 episodes on Stoicism.
A Guide to the Good Life, by William Irvine
Thinking Like a Stoic, by Massimo Pigliucci
I hope to teach Stoic practices like Negative Visualization and Dichotomy of Control, which in Layman’s terms are interpreted as “The best way to appreciate what you have is to imagine life without it or them,” and “Learn to adjust to the things that won’t adjust to you.”
Fitness revolutionaries
I’m reading biographies and memoirs of people who changed the world because of their passion for fitness. I loved preparing for these 10 episodes. Some of the people you’ve heard about like, Teddy Roosevelt and Joseph Pilates. And some you haven’t heard about like, Bernarr McFadden and Royal Robbins.
I hope that they inspire you to be passionate about taking care of yourself and your body.
Finding wisdom in Folk Tales
I’ve selected 10 folk tales from around the world that directly or indirectly address aging.
Two examples of this are, “The Old Man and His Grandson,“ and “Death’s Messengers.“
My Tranquility
I will be 70 next year. As I write this, 10 inches of snow cover the ground, and the temperature will not be going above freezing but twice in the next 10 days.
I’m in my Sunroom with the gas fireplace burning. Hansel, our beautiful kitty is sprawled out in front of it. We’re headed to Colorado in a few days to visit Family.
With all of the chaos in the world, political divisiveness, the cold weather, the crime rate, the financial uncertainty in the world, and the ever-present risk of business misfortune, I’m experiencing tranquility and peace.
I want to infect you with some of that tranquility and peace in the upcoming season I’ve called:
