The Skeeter Daddle Diaries

Maybe you’re not like me — and geez, I hope you’re not — but I’m at that juncture in life where reminiscing is a better pastime than daydreaming about the future. I know, I know, Be Here Now, practice Mindfulness, yeah, yeah, but I’m 72 years old and there’s a lot more in the rearview than what’s up ahead and okay, I realize I need to keep my eye on the road for what’s coming up. Nevertheless…

Jimmy Buffet has a nice song called A Pirate Looks Back at 40. Talk to him about Mindfulness, I’m nearly twice that age. Let me drag up memories and regrets, wins and losses, successes and defeats, mistakes and triumphs, I think I earned the right.
My old man is 99. In a month or so he’ll break the century mark. I haven’t got a clue what he thinks about all day long in his small room in the assisted living joint we put him in. I talk to him every day and for the past couple of years his dementia has gotten worse to the point he doesn’t know what day of the week or sometimes what hour of the day. Gotta admit, sometimes I don’t either. Neither of us really cares.

I remember when my boxer, Dr. Gonzo, reached the age where she mostly slept next to the woodstove, maybe dreaming her old dog dreams, maybe not, seemingly content to stay warm, eat, hang around us all day. I suspect it’s us humans who think too much, worry too much, maybe lose sight of the small comforts old age affords us. We can just slow down, sleep a little more, fall into a more natural rhythm finally, one we fought tooth and nail against as obsessive ambitious human beings.

Me, I’m content lately to reminisce.

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