Last night’s catch phrase was, “Don’t Try to Figure It Out.” After a few glasses of wine and birthday cheer on my part, don’t contemplate too hard yourself – you had to have been there. The point being is that if you have to think too long about figuring out what I might have just said, for example, it’s probably not worth it! It may take too much energy on both of our parts to figure it out, like a complicated algebra formula. Sometimes things come out of my mouth that defy explanation. This may be one of them! Just don’t try to figure it out!

Don’t try to figure out what I might say, write, or do these days. I’m often in a world of my own, trying to figure out all the answers to life, death, and happiness. Reflection is what retirement is often all about, reliving all those memories of seventy years of life. Many of them unfortunately are lost, while others generate only fragments of recall. I learned over twenty years ago the importance of keeping a diary to write things down. For years now, each day I’ve jotted down a few moments to remember like key events, dining, movies I’ve watched and books read. I can now search this extensive database when my memory banks fail me. Too often, however, I can’t figure out why I wrote down what I did. This at least stimulates a conversation with others to try to figure it out. 

Yesterday I made the following diary entry: “Babysit Mango and Nora/Ideal Classic Cars/Car Wash -Peter/Sharkey’s/Crow’s Nest.” In greater detail, we spent the morning with my granddaughter and her puppy, went to the classical car museum, stopped by the carwash to change the power steering fluids in my friends car, had a drink on the beach, and enjoyed our joint belated birthday dinner at The Crow’s Nest. When I look at this entry in another ten years, what memories will it stir? Will I remember sitting out back on the lanai with my friend under the stars watching the Astros claim a spot in the World Series? Will I remember the Minnie Mouse dress and ears my granddaughter wore while blowing giant bubbles in the driveway? Will I think of Mango the dog relentlessly licking my friend’s ear with ticklish laughter? I hope I can figure it out when the time comes!