A New Bump in the Road

Lots of diseases and conditions are more likely to occur when you get older. I was first diagnosed with Diabetes when I was past 50 and I managed for a long time to keep it in control with simple strategies like losing weight and controlling what I ate. I did finally require medication by mouth, but I dreaded advancement to insulin therapy even though I knew it was probably coming. 

Well, get over it. It happened today. The doctor called the dosage small. I guess it is, but it still indicates I am getting worse. That's not something I want to shout about. I don't like to advertise my illnesses or seek pity or privileges due to this condition. I feel a little ashamed or embarrassed about it. Maybe I'm giving it more power over my life than it warrants. Maybe I can manage it without great parades and the bands playing, but somehow this marks a new milestone in my life. It's no longer just something that I can control with a better diet and a pill once a day. Now I'll be more at risk for low blood sugar because of the shot. I'll probably have to see the doctor more often. She may expect me to count calories. Whatever the requirements, I already don't like the way this is going. I've seen the damage this disease did to others and reduces my optimism about getting old. 

I had really kind of settled on growing old gracefully, but debilitating disease does not enhance that possibility.  

Resolution Before New Year

Old people looking at something (Photo credit: Jared Wong)

I've been messing around for a while now here at the home, but I think I've found my niche. I'm not really interested in playing cards or going to "Social Hour." I think I'll regress into things I found rewarding earlier in life, like writing. I've been piddling with the blogs for a while now, but I'd like to do some serious stuff again. I like Apologetics and fiction. Maybe more academic writing would occupy my time and attention, but I may need a great deal more work to accomplish that. 

I haven't written a poem in a while, and that is certainly one thing I want to do, but I have read some modern poetry lately, and I wasn't very impressed. Some of it was O.K. But I want to write for readers that live in the real world, or better yet, for people who live in the world of aging. The stuff I found depended on shock and odd spacing and harsh images. I didn't find much that was uplifting or encouraging. The authors were mostly college professors. I will seek common experiences and emotions to write about--sometimes from those people who play cards and go to "Social Hour."

Carl Sandburg wrote about Chicago's hog butchers and Robert Frost wrote about New England farmers and Emily Dickinson wrote about bees and prairies. I'll probably follow their lead. I know they wrote in a bygone era, but I belong there, too. I am old and I like the lessons yet to be found there, so here at "the home" I hope to get my priorities in order and write more consistently and more regularly, with greater discipline and critique.