Wheelin' and Dealin'

Spinning Wheel - (Blood, Sweat and Tears)

Someone's waiting just for you
Spinning wheel, spinning true.
Drop all your troubles by the riverside
Ride a painted pony
Let the spinning wheel fly.

I am reminded of "The Riddle of the Sphinx," which was answered by Oedipus: "What has one voice, and is four-footed, two-footed and three footed?" The answer of course, was "Man." As an infant he crawls on all fours. He next walks upright on two legs. Finally, near his end, he walks with the aid of a cane.

The Evolution of Firm

Once, firm described a fresh-picked apple. Once, the muscles were firm. Once, firm was used in the same sentence as hard. Once, firm was a breast.

Before long, firm reflected how good your Polident held your teeth in place. Then firm was a nice mattress. Next, firm was just another word for a business. The word firm finally, took on a different meaning when it conjured up images of an infirmary.

I have been working with the elderly for about eight years. The Riddle of the Sphinx and the meaning of firm are not uncommon topics that sometimes come up when I am engaged in friendly conversation with some of my clients. From time to time, some of these chats produce material that I post here. Some of these anecdotes are entertaining and funny. Some, unfortunately, are sad.

I don't look at these talks as only fodder for my blog. I see them as a precursor to my own fate. I am learning, gathering information for the day that I walk a mile in their shoes. Working with clients aged anywhere from 65 to 98, I am humbled by the fact that I am only seven years removed from the youngest of them. If the opening Wheels of Life picture represents the 9 stations of life, I am sitting at number 6 as I write this. I am aware that inspite of the effects of gravity and time, I still have a long ways to go.

Many of these people are quite active. To my surprise, I learned that many of them are actually active ... sexually! I documented this in August '05 with my post No. 314, "Hi-Rise Hi-Jinks." In his eighties, my client kept sexy negligees and underwear in his apartment. One of three or four eighty-ish ladies would visit him every now and then to "model" these for him while he sat in his recliner wearing only a pair of "elephant-trunk" shorts. One evening I even had the "fortune" to walk in on him and one of these ladies performing the dirty deed itself. (It was not a pretty sight for these eyes.)
....Because these ladies didn't want their children to discover their crotchless and cupless underwear, my client kept them hidden in his place. In fact he even ordered the stuff for them from Victoria's Secret and Fredericks of Hollywood. In an effort to protect the"guilty," I dubbed him the Catalog Casanova. For fun and with his knowledge, I put up another post, "Interview With The Casanova," No. 383 in October '05.

I would like to think that I, and any of you readers, will still be able to and have the desire to "play" when we reach our eighties. I'll settle for being able to walk around without tubes attached to my body.

Until then, I'll just keep on wheelin' and dealin' with the passage of time ... one day at a time. I'll try to limit the number of definitions that I use for "firm."

No.553