I get up slowly to ensure I don't enrage my lower back. I'd like to pretend I may get up without reflecting on my age but my back prevents this. Yup, I'm old! Even though going downstairs slightly eases unwelcome messages from the Malign Kingdom of the Lower Lumbar Delta. God rot them all down there.
One cannot consciously forget one's age but one may - temporarily - replace that awareness. How? By doing something new, never attempted before. There's a general election in the offing and I could vote Tory. Risky! Very risky! My left hand would reach stranglingly for my throat as my right hand wielded the pencil.
I could Google the rules of lacrosse. Read a whodunnit by P. D. James. Count backwards from a thousand. Try to play Wiegenlied on the keyboard with my toes. A multitude of novel experiences.
In the kitchen is a fruitcake, cooked yesterday and scattered with almond flakes. It's VR's cake day at the art group. I could bake a cake, that would be new. I imagine the procedure. Obtain a mixing bowl, yeah I know where that is. Then... what? Crack an egg. Then....? Beyond is only a void.
But never mind. For the first time ever I've imagined baking a cake. Forgetting my age. And the MKLLD messages have become fainter.
Simple really.
I think you should bake that cake. Follow the recipe.
ReplyDeleteI know it's an age of utter political upheaval but RR vote Tory....?That's really a reflection on current affairs!
ReplyDeleteColette: You haven't thought this through. A baked cake needs eating. Who in my family would be inclined to eat my first-ever cake? And just supposing you happened to be in the area, would you volunteer? As a result: embarrassment for me and an eventual reduction in my self-esteem.
ReplyDeleteAvus: It was just a passing thought. And you know me, soft-hearted to the core. I wouldn't wish to add to Johnson's travails; me going blue might well cause him to opt for the ditch. Anything to get away from a world he could no longer handle.
Bake that cake! If you can drive a car, use a computer, follow a musical score, sing, write a novel, etc. surely you can follow a simple recipe with precise instructions?
ReplyDeleteNatalie: Why bake a cake when counting backwards from a thousand would would take far less effort? There's no particular virtue in creating something that represents a million calories. In any case, I imagined baking a cake; the aim was to do something never-before achieved and I did just that. Adding a little literary sophistry (one of my black arts) along the way.
ReplyDeleteI see a new character in the offing, an older man using his imagination to elude the pains from inevitable aging. Not an entire novel, but the opening chapter of one, perhaps, written in your wry humorous manner?
ReplyDeleteYeah, I know writing a novel wouldn't wouldn't be a new experience for you, but writing humor might be. I would enjoy reading a Thurber-esque treatment of your life at this stage: the mischief you get into while waiting for The Wife to finish her art class; visiting a new grocery store with a list for unfamiliar ingredients, such as vegetables heretofore unknown, finding exotic ones your imagination tells you would likely make a delicious meal...oh, the things you (the main character, not you necessarily) could write you've never written before.
(I would try your cake, were I in the neighborhood. I bet it would be good!)