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That's just weird

5/2/2017

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At breakfast this morning I found we had run out of milk for cereal so I went to Plan B, a bagel. I put it in the toaster and got the butter and jam out ready to get it on there while the thing was still hot. The butter's got to melt into it, and the whole thing has to be warm when I put it in my mouth.

Linda saw what I was doing and asked me to get a bagel out for her too, since she hadn't eaten yet either. While mine was toasting, she started spreading butter on hers cold, and then peanut butter on top of that.

I looked at it, and looked at it again, and said, "That's weird. That's just plain weird. Aren't you even going to toast it?"

"No. I like it cold," whereupon she walked out into the living room with it and plunked herself down in front of the TV.

That got me thinking. "You know," I said, as I sat on a chair at the kitchen table, "it's good that we all have these little differences in what we like. It makes us feel like individuals, instead of just doing what we're supposed to do all the time."

Without turning around: "That's for sure."

At our advanced age, we've stared at all the supposed-tos in our lives so many times, and catered to them and fought with them so often, that they're like heavily armed jailers always crowding in on us wherever we are, just now leaning down over my bagel with their typical grim expressions. 


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Erin Kelly were you eating Russian 'black bagels'?
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Stan Burfield No, brown, whole-wheat ones. Why?
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Erin Kelly Something about your metaphor reminded me of Russian literature...
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Stan Burfield Ha ha. It would be so much fun having a conversation with you, Erin.
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Erin Kelly Stan Burfield same!
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 · Reply · 2 May at 20:38
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It happens like this...

5/1/2017

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​As I get older, I'm seeing that, more often than not, it happens like this: instead of our minds and bodies slowly decaying away, as we had always feared they would, we feel little changed as we look out through our eyes on that same world, which, if anything, we can see more clearly, not less, as we age. With a little tweaking now and then, life seems like it could go on forever. Day to day, from youth to old age, we carry on quite normally. As with evening and the approach of night, there is never one moment that is suddenly on the night side of the day.

​So it happens like this: in the middle of some sparkling afternoon, we hear a roar behind us, find we can't move, and turn into the headwind of the freight train of death.
​
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Looks like a huge revolution coming: repair of damaged DNA (aging)!

3/25/2017

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Critical step in cellular repair of damaged DNA identified which could be big for reversing aging and human trials will start within six monthsUNSW researchers have identified a critical step in the molecular process that allows cells to repair damaged DNA – and it could mean big things for the future of anti-ageing drugs, childhood cancer survivors and even astronauts. It could lead to a revolutionary drug that actually reverses ageing, improves DNA repair and could even help NASA get its astronauts to Mars.

Their experiments in mice suggest a treatment is possible for DNA damage from ageing and radiation. It is so promising it has attracted the attention of NASA, which believes the treatment can help its Mars mission. 


                                                                       Read More
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No longer a ghost

2/20/2017

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I've always wished I could be someone else. And maybe, if I had ever managed to pull it off, my life would have been easier. Or more difficult. Who knows which. But in any case, my background didn't allow for imitation. It was either find and be myself, or be nothing at all--some kind of walking ghost. Which, because of shyness, is what I usually felt like in comparison to others.

So it has been a revelation, lately, to no longer have to try to be something I'm not, but to just be myself. And to do it blatantly, in everybody else's faces! Come what may. It's an unexpected kind of strength I've found, finally, here in old age.


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    Stan Burfield's Blog

    Organizer of London Open Mic Poetry. former support worker for people with autism and developmental disabilities.  former farm boy, former adventurer, former florist.
    The 2014 Ted Plantos Memorial Award

    Interview in Your Old South Magazine
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