All together now...right, left, right, left

Albert Einstein

 I'm glad to see that others are beginning to recognize something that this website alluded to  recently: the brains of older adults are slower, because they have so much information stored in them.

It's very much like a computer's hard drive; the fuller it is, the slower it is.

The science is settled. 

So, I don't want to hear any more slurs directed toward us chronologically gifted.

Now, admittedly, I do check the "Early signs that you are you losing your mind" tests that I see on the Internet from time to time, and so far, so good. 

For example, Rhyming things is one of them. I don't do that.

And I'm certainly not schizophrenic. Both of us agree on that.

But there is one that worries me; laughing at weird and inappropriate times.

I do that a lot!

Although, I think the "weird and inappropriate" part of that is very subjective.

Often, I'm the only one laughing, but that doesn't mean it's inappropriate.........if it is truly funny.

Last year, several of my friends convinced me to sign up for a physical therapy class to help with some back pain I was having.  They told me how much they had benefited from such a program. I normally shy away from anything involving a "group." But I was assured that I would receive individual attention. And, although there were a lot of people in the room, each was doing different exercises.

Well, I felt so foolish doing the exercises that I couldn't stop laughing. I was shaking this foot one way, then the other the opposite way, then hugging a big ball while making circles with my leg one way and my left arm another...I got to laughing so hard, the others in the class got to laughing at me....and well, the management couldn't have been happier when I told them that I had decided not to return for any more therapy.

Before leaving the building, I paused and watched another class of about 20 senior citizens doing group therapy each throwing a ball from one hand to the other...in perfect unison on a cue from the therapist leader...calling out, "Left, Right, left, right.."

Now don't get me wrong. I wasn't laughing at these people. What they were doing is strengthening little used muscles and improving others for support and relief of pain or whatever. And they know damn well they wouldn't be doing such exercises unless they had paid money for others to make them. But, whatever the reason,  I don't believe I've ever heard anyone say that this sort of therapy didn't help them. 

But doggone it, seeing it for the first time just struck me as hilarious.

The day I went to exercise 
The sights I saw did mesmerize 
And enveloped me with laughter
Some say it reached the rafter
 Although I said goodbye to therapy,
They kept my hard earned currency
So the story's final paragraph
Is they had the last darn laugh

Uh oh..........-Ed