As Baby Boomers Age This Becomes Epidemic!

This doesn't start out being related to storytelling. . . please stay with it as it definitely will.

If Alzheimer's or Dementia hasn't yet touched someone you know, it will.  While I've seen people I love experience it, one very recently, they were born before the so-called Baby Boom when after World War II people created families and, yes, they had children.  Those children are now either retired or nearly that age.  The size of Boomers is only slightly less than their children if they are Millennials.  (Gen X is in between the two generations and definitely lower in numbers than either.)  For a quick overview with characteristics, first here's a graphic

That's only part of an article, "Boomers, Gen X, Gen Y, Gen Z, and Gen A Explained" from the Kasasa Exchange.  After explaining each group, it also analyzes use of technology, consumer behavior, and banking.  Until it became clear that Gen X wasn't the full picture of support going into Social Security and medical insurance, it looked as if the sheer size of the Boomers would bankrupt support for them.  Let's face it, the large number of Boomers was reminiscent of a snake swallowing something bigger than itself!  Fortunately for that generation, both the next two generations combine to be large enough.    

(Personal Political Opinion: Social Security would be helped by removing the ceiling on income taxable for it -- wages and self-employment income over $147,000 is now exempt.)

That's financial assistance, but the real concern should be the start of an epidemic bigger than Covid!  I like to say "Nobody gets out alive!", meaning we all die. That's certainly true, but what will be the condition of our brains before we go?  

There are all manner of myths accepted about Alzheimer's and dementia including 62% of healthcare practitioners believe dementia is a part of normal aging!  That came from an international study of "Attitudes about Alzheimer's and Dementia" which also points out the stigma and isolation coming from the diagnosis.  While nothing yet cures it, early diagnosis can lead to medications and other treatment aiding in controlling it.  That came from an issue of The Osborn Blog, published on the first and 15th of each month about health and welfare issues, often, but not just related to seniors. The Alzheimer's Association is well-known for its support on this topic and funding for research.  They often have fund drives with matching funds multiplying your donations.

Back in September of 2013 I wrote here about my own work I called Elder Stories.  At that time I had been using resources I first learned about from Liz Nichols.  I had been closely involved with her presentation about the TimeSlips method.  If you go to that link for TimeSlips you have a choice of learning how you can practice it whether you're (a) part of an organization, (b) a teacher or student, or (c) a family member or friend.  You can, as Liz says, "Forget Memory, Try Imagination."  Her page and the TimeSlips section for family members and friends, and even the article I wrote on Elder Stories give an easy introduction to this improvisational storytelling method that replaces the pressure to remember with the freedom to imagine. 

Back in 2013 when I approached local assisted living and memory care providers they all wanted me to train their workers.  At the time I said I preferred to work specifically with their residents.  Covid has made that much less possible due to the vulnerability of their residents.  <SIGH!>  Maybe it's time I consider training their workers to make this more widely available .

As the United Negro College Fund's slogan reminds us: A mind is a terrible thing to waste.

My friend I mentioned at the start of this was recognized as being highly creative. For exactly that reason I suggested TimeSlips to the family member who is now becoming a caregiver.

This is one of many artworks, using "found items" made by this person.

Beyond that, it's time we all do as much memoir writing and gathering of stories before those stories disappear.  I can offer that sort of workshop, too.  

LoiS(o this is as much a call to action for me as it is for you!)

 

Annual Foolishness 2014 Farewell

Today is a personal look and yet it relates to storytelling since that's so much a part of me.

Canadian storytelling friend, Elinor Benjamin calls her holiday year's end review her Annual Foolishness.  Mine is a return to my theatre roots.  Yes, that's with an "re" as my undergraduate degree is in Theatre Arts.  Back then we were taught "Your body is your instrument."  That training hurt when Larry Linville died.

I learned his lung disease could be traced back to years of smoking.  He was one of the professional actors at Webster College (now University) and the Loretto Hilton Repertory Theatre who trained me so long ago.  Not many know he was one of the first American actors studying at the Royal Academy of Dramatic Arts and was a fine Shakespearian actor.  After his success as Frank Burns in M*A*S*H, that was all Hollywood could see him playing.

While working as a librarian, theatre rehearsal schedules were impossible, although I did bring a bit of it into some of my library work whenever possible.  It certainly influences my storytelling style.  When I switched to full-time storytelling I knew theatre needed to return to my life for its mental challenges, creativity, and a balance to my personal life.  I included dance for physical fitness as it's my favorite exercise.  Experimenting showed me that, while I love directing, it's too consuming to coexist with my storytelling, but I can manage to perform in roughly a show per year.

Two years ago, as summer was ending, I auditioned for Chicago, the musical, figuring it would give me dancing at a time when classes had stopped and, even when they returned, for free.  Didn't realize those warm-ups that were always the beginning of class weren't a part of rehearsals but my own responsibility.  Developed a foot injury so bad I thought I would have to drop out!  My foot doctor and later physical therapy got me through it, although it remains as a mild reminder: Your body is your instrument.  I also discovered in this first return to a musical that I loved and missed the dancing and singing even though it takes way more effort than a standard play. 

My Annual Foolishness 2014 has just closed.  It was again with Lakeland Players and a musical, Sweet Charity, which is a great '60s period piece.  Lots of dancing and this time I religiously did a warm-up before each rehearsal and show.  Well, one time I was backstage right before opening and remembered!  Did the most important stuff, since the opening didn't need me dancing until Big Spender and, especially, the 3 in 1 dance later on...the Frug!, a real workout of a number that made the hippie dancing for Rhythm of Life seem like a piece of cake.  Hmmmm, rather like the $17 cake given to Charity in the "I Love to Cry at Weddings" number where we danced as Charity planned to leave her life we all announced in "Big Spender."  Both Chicago and Sweet Charity were Bob Fosse musicals and you may notice I'm still in Withdrawal symptoms.

There's an extra reason I treasure my 2014 Annual Foolishness as it came after a year of serious health problems in 2013.  There were times it was a stretch I wondered if I could manage, but it's great to look back and know I did and still can! 

2013 meant canceling nearly half my storytelling gigs while I looked after myself.  Even in the midst of it I accepted a "small role" -- yes, I agree with Stanislavski "There are no small roles, only small actors."  I took the part when an actor stepped out of Agatha Christie's The Mousetrap.  Mrs. Boyle is killed by the end of Act One and I was determined to make the audience cheer when they find the old Bat's been murdered.  I got it! 

Looking back at 2013, however, brought some interesting changes to my storytelling life besides The Mousetrap's Annual Foolishness.  I  took time off for some sabbatical time developing my storytelling work with Alzheimer's and dementia patients in what I call Elder Stories, which keeps their creativity and communication skills active.  Here I also branched out to share stories too good to forget in my Keeping the Public in Public Domain portions of this site.  Additionally I've long told some stories in voice and sign language and have increased my sharing the love of this visual way of communicating. 

2014's Sweet Charity was worth all the effort of my Annual Foolishness focus.  It also included a chance to work with a great bunch of people.

We can all celebrate a show that wasn't foolish to produce and I'd gladly work again with any of them.  (I say this even as I recuperate from getting "The Company Cold.")

Yes, "Your body is your instrument", that includes both mind and body, so I also want to turn to the philosophical wisdom of Charles Schulz's irrepressible Snoopy who wisely said,

"To live is to dance, to dance is to live!"

So, just as I tell many stories that dance, I'm delighted to keep on dancing even as give my farewell to Annual Foolishness 2014.

Elder Stories (part of How I Spent My Summer)

It's almost a running joke that students are expected to write about "How I Spent My Summer."  Back on May 3 of this year I recognized a sabbatical from my usual storytelling commitments was needed.  While some storytelling did sneak into my schedule, the work that came the closest to being a major change of pace was described this way:

• Most of my work includes research, which is why this blog is titled Storytelling + Research = LoiS.  (Didn't realize, when choosing my title, the "+" and "=" signs would not show up in the address!)  I have begun work on a project continuing through this summer which does not lend itself to posting on these pages.  I will be working with some very special people in Alzheimer's and Dementia groups.  Patient confidentiality prevents my telling the results of this work.  Last summer at the National Storytelling Network conference, I assisted, Liz Nichols in her presentation of the TimeSlips program.  There is a great deal of information about this exciting and fun way to invoke communication and creativity among this very special population without relying on memory.  For yet another view of its use, you might go to Mary Clark's article for NSN's special interest group, the  Healing Story Alliance.  Perhaps you will catch some of the excitement I feel in working on this project! 

Working with Alzheimer's and Dementia patients and their caregivers was a delight!  I want to do much more of leading them in creating stories based not upon memory, but upon what they see.  The sharing and opportunity to have fun with others, added to the maintenance of communication and even creativity, was contagious.  Calling my own version of it "Elder Stories", I offered an assortment of pictures to each group, letting them choose their favorite for each session.  Because I knew history was an interest among some of the members, I used photographs or illustrations that included 20th century and late 19th century.  Norman Rockwell was a favorite.  The stories may have been totally different from what actually happened in a photograph or what the illustrator had in mind.  Doesn't matter.  To paraphrase Shakespeare's Hamlet, The story's the thing wherein we capture the imagination that still exists.

If you know of any group that would like to try Elder Stories and is here in Michigan, please contact me.  Beyond Michigan I suggest the hotlinked resources named above.  It will take longer to develop your own program, but is definitely worthwhile.

On a personal note, beyond the Elder Stories, I also mentioned "a very important personal project in my life" and that "I hope to post more about it later at its successful conclusion."  There was indeed a successful conclusion, but am not yet ready to turn it into a part of my storytelling life.  Storytelling isn't all research or performance, it takes time to process an experience or prepare a story.  This has been one of those projects.  We'll see if it develops beyond my personal life. 

LoiS(abbatical)

Yesterday I said starting today "I want to start sharing stories twice a week with you and tell you why I'm about to sign myself...)

LoiS(abbatical)"

Sometimes life takes some twists and turns.  This summer promises to be one of those times.  I've already three projects in the making.

• One is continuing my posting Detroit newspaper articles about Michigan's "Fighting 5th" Civil War Infantry at the same pace as relatives saw them 150 years ago when searching for news of their family in the "Fighting Fifth."  I became particularly interested in this regiment through my reenactment of Liberetta Lerich Green,
  
  who had 2 brothers in the 5th Infantry. For more information about LoiS as the very real person, Liberetta, go to http://www.lois-sez.com/Historical.html.  The 5th were part of the Army of the Potomac and this summer marks the anniversary of their involvement in the battle of Gettysburg.  As might be expected, the Detroit newspaper correspondents had plenty to cover the summer of 1863.  I look forward to sharing their story and other views of the Civil War from the homefront at Historic Fort Wayne's Civil War Days on their new dates of September 14 and 15.  Just remember this historic fort, where the 5th and many other regiments were mustered, is in Detroit.  I love the way Tom Berlucchi, chairman of the Historic Fort Wayne Coalition, when talking about the fort, always ends with "Fort Wayne's in Detroit!"  
• Most of my work includes research, which is why this blog is titled Storytelling + Research = LoiS.  (Didn't realize, when choosing my title, the "+" and "=" signs would not show up in the address!)  I have begun work on a project continuing through this summer which does not lend itself to posting on these pages.  I will be working with some very special people in Alzheimer's and Dementia groups.  Patient confidentiality prevents my telling the results of this work.  Last summer at the National Storytelling Network conference, I assisted, Liz Nichols in her presentation of the TimeSlips program.  There is a great deal of information about this exciting and fun way to invoke communication and creativity among this very special population without relying on memory.  For yet another view of its use, you might go to Mary Clark's article for NSN's special interest group, the  Healing Story Alliance.  Perhaps you will catch some of the excitement I feel in working on this project! 
• While the closest I generally come to telling personal stories might be considered Tall Tales (mosquitoes, the weather, things always up for a bit of "stretching" here in Michigan), sometimes life gives those twists and turns I mentioned in the opening of this article.  For now I have a very important personal project in my life accompanying the others mentioned here.  I hope to post more about it later at its successful conclusion.  (How's that for a storyteller leaving you in suspense?...well I am in suspense, too.)
• The projects mentioned above take me out of my usual work of sharing stories with an audience.  My own library of folklore includes so many books within the Public Domain I decided to share stories from them.  I was going to try for a story a day, but quickly realized it might prove difficult for me to maintain.  Instead I've chosen bi-weekly posting.  Normally I try for monthly posting of a research project here so I don't overwhelm readers.  In this case that would clearly be too few.  Starting tomorrow I will post stories twice a week here under the category, "Keeping the Public in Public Domain."  The idea behind Public Domain was to preserve our cultural heritage after the authors and their immediate heirs were compensated.  I feel strongly current copyright law delays this intent on works of the 20th century.  I hope you enjoy discovering new stories.