Jitterbug Time

I wrote my first serious work-a novel-at age 62, I didn’t know I could write. That novel was published during my year at 63 and since then, I have had many poems published, aw well as short stories and articles. Every English teacher I ever had with the exception of my freshman year English college professor has probably turned over in their grave-the very idea I would even attempt to write. This is not about me-I only want you to see you can even find a new path in life-well after middle age or when you get old. It is a choice-this aging thing.

You want to feel sorry for yourself—-stop! Look at Helen Keller—-blind and deaf—-look at all the things she accomplished. She didn’t “poor me”. She took what she had, learned how to better use it, and accomplished more than most who have never had to overcome hurdles. AlbertEinstein failed in school-told he would never amount to anything-but just as Helen Keller had done-he made a choice. It really does not matter your past—-the choices you made then—-what matters is recognizing where you are today-make a new choice-get back your jitterbug about life, about a project—-get excited and start.

One of the sad truths of life when you are old, we often find ourselves without a partner or our partner. So many of our dreams of retirement years were planned around there being a partner. Death shows no respect for our plans, our happiness, our future. Many slowly, others very quickly, slip into depression—-life just threw them a curve they were not expecting. I have a question for you who have had that happen to you: if you were thirty years younger-would you have made the same choice-depression? I dare say you would not have, you would have mourned your loss for awhile, then you would have put on your dancing shoes and jitterbugged your way back into life. What has changed is now you think it is too late to start over, over again for some. It is never easy at any age to start over, but many before you and many that will follow do just that-they start over because they make a choice, a choice to live.

Many old persons get lonely which can also lead to depression. Strange thing loneliness. I have experienced it many times in my life—-and what is so strange-some of those times I was surrounded by people. At those times I made a choice to be lonely—-became self centered minded, don’t you think? When I made a choice not to be lonely—-I became other minded. The King James Holy Bible has part of a scripture that says something like this, “an idle mind is the devil”s workshop.’ When we quit dreaming, hoping, planning and playing, we begin to slow down, accepting the restraint of our body’s aging, we begin to become self-centered (inward thinking) and we get depressed, lonely-by choice. Our idle mind begins to make us think things are worst then they are, that we are not deserving of friends, of family, of love so we get depressed, more lonelier—-by choice. Instead, what we need is to give to others those things we want ourselves-visit others who are homebound, call family, help others with their plans, go on a trip-alone if you must-put on your dancing shoes and jitterbug—-by choice.

William James, the famous philosopher, made the following statement, “I do not believe in luck.” “If things are not what I want them to be, I change them.” When I first heard that quote, I was in my early twenties and it has been part of my life view since. So if that could be true for each of us—–then it is not “Poor Me” time, it is “JITTERBUG” time.

Jerry W. Rockett

11-20-2003