(Brad Buyers featured in Photo)By Bruce Lindsay
That's right. At over 40 years old I'm learning a fun circus trick. I'm making it a goal for 2009.
That's right. At over 40 years old I'm learning a fun circus trick. I'm making it a goal for 2009.
My 9 year-old, Emma, asked for some juggling balls for Christmas. She wanted to learn to juggle. What a great idea! I got them for her, along with a DVD – Juggling 101. Now we are both learning to juggle. It's not easy. We missed more balls than we caught at first, but we're learning.
I demonstrated my juggling to one of my co-workers and she said, "That's not going to be easy for you. Your brain is pretty old." She hit the nail on the head. I'm learning to juggle because I don't want my brain to get old.
People who have hobbies and interests live longer. As a Funeral Director, I see it daily. Every funeral I arrange, I ask this question, "What were your Mom's/Dad's interests. How did people know your Mom/Dad outside of work?"
Usually the response is a vacant stare suggesting that they don't understand the question, so I continue…
"You know… Did she teach Sunday-School, or sing in a choir? Was he a member of a Golf Club or a Curling Club or a Square Dance Club? Did she coach a team or play cards? Did he hunt with a regular group of guys at a hunt camp? Were they members of the Lions Club, the Kiwanis Club, the Kinsmen, or any other organization? Did he play an instrument? What did she do for fun?"
You don't know how many times I arrange funerals and hear the same thing. "No. Mom/Dad was pretty much a stay at home kind of person."
In our aging society, I see that Baby Boomers are now in their 50s and 60s. They are retiring or at least moving from full-time stuff to part-time stuff. It's fairly well known that if you don't keep learning new stuff, you get dumber. That's because we are always forgetting stuff. But worse than that, if we don't keep learning, we begin to lose the ability to learn new stuff. If you don't use it – you lose it.
I know it's not the case for everyone, but to me that means they shut themselves in and shut themselves down. They became couch potatoes. They lost their ability to learn.
Boomers are becoming aware of the need to keep learning. Sudoku has become a big hit with boomers. You have to use your brain, imagining numbers to fill out a chart properly. I think it's kind of fun too.
I demonstrated my juggling to one of my co-workers and she said, "That's not going to be easy for you. Your brain is pretty old." She hit the nail on the head. I'm learning to juggle because I don't want my brain to get old.
People who have hobbies and interests live longer. As a Funeral Director, I see it daily. Every funeral I arrange, I ask this question, "What were your Mom's/Dad's interests. How did people know your Mom/Dad outside of work?"
Usually the response is a vacant stare suggesting that they don't understand the question, so I continue…
"You know… Did she teach Sunday-School, or sing in a choir? Was he a member of a Golf Club or a Curling Club or a Square Dance Club? Did she coach a team or play cards? Did he hunt with a regular group of guys at a hunt camp? Were they members of the Lions Club, the Kiwanis Club, the Kinsmen, or any other organization? Did he play an instrument? What did she do for fun?"
You don't know how many times I arrange funerals and hear the same thing. "No. Mom/Dad was pretty much a stay at home kind of person."
In our aging society, I see that Baby Boomers are now in their 50s and 60s. They are retiring or at least moving from full-time stuff to part-time stuff. It's fairly well known that if you don't keep learning new stuff, you get dumber. That's because we are always forgetting stuff. But worse than that, if we don't keep learning, we begin to lose the ability to learn new stuff. If you don't use it – you lose it.
I know it's not the case for everyone, but to me that means they shut themselves in and shut themselves down. They became couch potatoes. They lost their ability to learn.
Boomers are becoming aware of the need to keep learning. Sudoku has become a big hit with boomers. You have to use your brain, imagining numbers to fill out a chart properly. I think it's kind of fun too.
(Jamie Wilson featured in Photo)
Nintendo has a video game for Boomers called Brain Age. This from Nintendo: "Brain Age's intuitive gameplay makes brain training easy for everyone. Train across fifteen activities. Solve simple math problems, recite piano songs, play a challenging version of rock, paper, scissors, and test your memory skills in the classic game, Concentration. You'll love your mental workout!"
My 13 year-old, Clifford has the Brain Age game. In the paper-rock-scissors game, the computer will give you paper, rock, or scissors and either tell you to 'please win' or 'please lose'.
If it gives you 'paper – please win.' That's easy. Scissors cut paper. Scissors is my answer.
But when it gives you 'paper – please lose.' I'm stuck.
"How do you lose to paper? Ummm. I know it's not paper. Scissors beats paper. Um. Oh yeah! Paper covers rock. Rock loses to paper. Rock!"
When you finish the game, it rates your brain in human years. In that game I have the brain of an 80 year old. I do better in most of the others, and I know with practice I'll get better at that one too. Yet it makes me wonder what it must be like to have the brain of an 80 year old.
My wife works for a doctor – a plastic surgeon. She knows when Oprah is on TV. She can always tell when Oprah has had a doctor on the show talking about some amazing new cure for something or some new illness that can be quite alarming or most often, an amazing new procedure that can make you look and feel younger. As soon as the show is over, her phone is inundated with calls from people asking, "Does the plastic surgeon know about this procedure? Can he do it? How much will it cost?
(For the record – Oprah doesn't know nearly as much as Canadian Doctors, so think about who you take health advice from.)
Dana tells them, "Yes he can do it, but it costs $10,000."
Usually he'll do it for about $6000 but on those days, it costs $10,000. Call it a financial penalty for being dumb.
Many people consider Oprah and other TV learning. In fact it's the opposite. All they are learning is to shut their brain down, and let Oprah spoon-feed them whatever her people decide each show will be about. Oprah tells people what to read, what movies to see, what to eat, how to stay healthy, how to vote and more. And millions do what she tells them to. They don't need to think anymore. Oprah's followers have become semi-vegetables. (What really makes me laugh is that many people forget what the show is about during the commercial breaks.)
People let their brains grow cold. Other people throw theirs into the freezer. I see it happening to my own parents. Before long, I'll be talking to a Funeral Director. "No. Mom/Dad was pretty much a stay at home kind of person."
This is a wake-up call for everyone. I'm not the smartest guy, but I'm smart enough to learn, and so are you. It might take some time to defrost the old grey-matter, but start learning. Make 2009 the year you learned a new skill. Think about what you thought would be fun as a child and start there. Did you want to learn to juggle too? Did you want to learn to play the violin? Did you think square-dancing was fun? Have you ever gone snow-shoeing? How about your hands? Do they still work? Why not try learning to paint pictures, or develop your own photos in your own dark-room?
My 13 year-old, Clifford has the Brain Age game. In the paper-rock-scissors game, the computer will give you paper, rock, or scissors and either tell you to 'please win' or 'please lose'.
If it gives you 'paper – please win.' That's easy. Scissors cut paper. Scissors is my answer.
But when it gives you 'paper – please lose.' I'm stuck.
"How do you lose to paper? Ummm. I know it's not paper. Scissors beats paper. Um. Oh yeah! Paper covers rock. Rock loses to paper. Rock!"
When you finish the game, it rates your brain in human years. In that game I have the brain of an 80 year old. I do better in most of the others, and I know with practice I'll get better at that one too. Yet it makes me wonder what it must be like to have the brain of an 80 year old.
My wife works for a doctor – a plastic surgeon. She knows when Oprah is on TV. She can always tell when Oprah has had a doctor on the show talking about some amazing new cure for something or some new illness that can be quite alarming or most often, an amazing new procedure that can make you look and feel younger. As soon as the show is over, her phone is inundated with calls from people asking, "Does the plastic surgeon know about this procedure? Can he do it? How much will it cost?
(For the record – Oprah doesn't know nearly as much as Canadian Doctors, so think about who you take health advice from.)
Dana tells them, "Yes he can do it, but it costs $10,000."
Usually he'll do it for about $6000 but on those days, it costs $10,000. Call it a financial penalty for being dumb.
Many people consider Oprah and other TV learning. In fact it's the opposite. All they are learning is to shut their brain down, and let Oprah spoon-feed them whatever her people decide each show will be about. Oprah tells people what to read, what movies to see, what to eat, how to stay healthy, how to vote and more. And millions do what she tells them to. They don't need to think anymore. Oprah's followers have become semi-vegetables. (What really makes me laugh is that many people forget what the show is about during the commercial breaks.)
People let their brains grow cold. Other people throw theirs into the freezer. I see it happening to my own parents. Before long, I'll be talking to a Funeral Director. "No. Mom/Dad was pretty much a stay at home kind of person."
This is a wake-up call for everyone. I'm not the smartest guy, but I'm smart enough to learn, and so are you. It might take some time to defrost the old grey-matter, but start learning. Make 2009 the year you learned a new skill. Think about what you thought would be fun as a child and start there. Did you want to learn to juggle too? Did you want to learn to play the violin? Did you think square-dancing was fun? Have you ever gone snow-shoeing? How about your hands? Do they still work? Why not try learning to paint pictures, or develop your own photos in your own dark-room?
Why not write some thoughts down and forward them to Murray so he can post them in this Blog?
You can learn on your own or in a group. When is the last time you were at the Library? That's a perfect place to start. Bring home a how-to book, or just buy one. (Did you know that's how I learned to play the banjo?)
Make 2009 the year you get that old brain working again!
Make 2009 the year you get that old brain working again!
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SPECIAL NOTE:
My friends the Randells - Jarvis & Loretta have a brand new Blog - take a look at English With A Mission
Photo Source
Brad Buyers –
Jamie Wilson
SPECIAL NOTE:
My friends the Randells - Jarvis & Loretta have a brand new Blog - take a look at English With A Mission
Photo Source
Brad Buyers –
Jamie Wilson
1 comment:
So if you practiced by juggling running chainsaws, the learning curve would be pretty steep ( or over very quickly!!). Our friend in Delhi who is also a funeral director says the same thing about having interests and hobbies. As in get some, quick. This may mean that Murray will live to be 127 beacause of how active he is. One can only hope.
Chad
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