Adam Blatner

This is an autobiographical note. It occurred to me to email friends and suggest that they pick up on my blog, starting with this.

I’m having having cataracts removed and lens replaced! This used to be a grueling procedure, having to lay still face down for days, maybe over a week at a time—that what they tell me. Now it’s a snap, a few hours in outpatient surgery, a few follow up visits with a charming ophthalmologist-surgeon. Meds several times a day. That’s taking up some of the springtime. I’ll need reading glasses, but not at all as strong. Talking to friends, I have come to realize it’s sort of a rite of passage for elders. At the end you see more clearly. This does not necessarily apply to spiritual insight, but I take it thus. At least for me, I have been something between hunkering down in my groove and focusing more. Works for me.

My life meanwhile is pleasantly varied: Square dancing, singing in the community chorus, some round dancing and ballroom dancing, preparing for and delivering classes at my lifelong learning program, walking around the block, life maintenance (many roles), keeping up with friends and family, etc. Some visits with daughter for her birthday, and granddaughters to see what they’re up to.

Then there’s the challenge of divesting. That word speaks to clutter, interests waning, difficulty letting go. I’ve decided there’s a complex for elders that has to do with minor hoarding—the “Gollum” complex. (My, there are many entries about the “gollum complex” on the internet!) (It’s elsewhere on my blog.) Interests in getting stuff balance out with need to simplify and de-clutter. It’s not easy because there’s all these things that I use for teaching. But too much is too much.

I’m in a new role of teaching medical students again, and Allee helps. (Hey, she does a lot of the work!) I’ve become an clinical associate professor at a new medical school branch that’s opened up not too far away—Texas A&M Medical Health Sciences Center in Round Rock, one town southeast of Georgetown.

Meanwhile our grandkids are having adventures. One granddaughter is assisting in a special ed classroom while the other is playing a part in a community theatre production. One grandson is active with computer games while another plays baseball. Growing up, I think they call it.

Being happy together is fun. Savoring love and affection with Allee. Small things. Appreciating Springtime weather.

Supporting friends as they go through health problems, knowing that may apply to us. Supporting Allee’s mom at 99 going on 100 as she gets an award for her poetry.

I realize that this blog is a vehicle for my thinking “out loud” about life, being a “con-tem’-pla-teur” (as I call it), one who contemplates. What’s it all about? We read books together, and separately; go to the library. But of course, even though we don’t by any but the most inexpensive books, still that fills the house.

Meanwhile, I’m working on a fair number of unfinished books, which I’ll probably self-publish so that they’re affordable.  Well that’s enough for now. Email me about whassup with you!