Age in My Pocket Friday Round-Up

Today, a community leader I was too afraid to talk to fifty years ago asked a photographer to take our picture together. Ben Johnson, long time Milwaukee Alderman and first Black president of the Milwaukee Common Council also served as chair of the board of the organization where I started my career in 1976. I watched him chair often very raucous meetings, studied his calm demeanor, and the way he took his time so everyone had a chance to speak. A few days ago, I told him that everything I know about chairing a meeting I learned from watching him. Today, with a big smile, he asked the people at our Commission on Aging meeting if he had taught me well. I have been beaming about that all day.

My porch office is open! My assistants, per usual, are sleeping on the job.

But the new intern, very birdlike in her looks and demeanor, is hard at work (those kids – always wanting to make an impression).

The back porch looks out on a small yard that is crammed with giant trees. This is because when a landscaper ‘re-envisioned’ that backyard, he brought really little trees with him – a lot of them. Twenty-five years later, it’s very dense back here. I don’t care. It used to be so hot on the back porch that we needed an awning. Not anymore. Wear your sweater.

Yesterday, I had lunch in the sun with someone I have known for 35 years. I met him when he was 25, right out of school, a young man so light on his feet that he seemed to dance through our work. He bounded with energy, whistled, always found a way out of no way or a way so slim no one else could see it. His optimism made me love him. You forget things like that when you haven’t seen someone for a good while. It all came back to me, sitting on the patio of a Mexican restaurant yesterday. He is 60 but he is the same. He might not remember himself, but I do.

I drove my old friend with a broken arm to Costco yesterday. Then ensued chicken salad, too many peaches, a massive jar of protein powder, and pants. Oh, and a shirt. And pants for my husband. And a giant package of cookies, and an overwhelming feeling of being in the presence of plenty – cheap and abundant plenty – that made me want to curl up on the floor next to the maple syrup in the cute little jugs and live at Costco forever. Near the honey roasted mixed nuts and the man giving out breakfast sausage samples.

What a good, difficult week. We’ve had to set the alarm several times. Dress up. Be prepared. And then debrief and celebrate. Other people travel. We go to meetings. Each to their own.