Just a Bite July 7th, 2009

Quote to ponder under the apple tree

I arise in the morning torn between a desire to improve the world and a desire to enjoy the world. This makes it hard to plan the day.
~ E. B. White (born July 11, 1899)

Resources to bite into

1. Finding the balance between saving and savoring *

E. B. White, who would have been 110 this week, is one of my favorite writers, not least because I share his tension over the difficulty of being good (responsible) while also appreciating earth’s goodness (relaxing and enjoying). He wrote wonderful children’s books (Charlotte’s Web, Stuart Little and Trumpet of the Swan), one basic writer’s guide (Elements of Style with William Strunk) and hundreds of essays for the New Yorker magazine with good humor, grace, and uncommon insight into our daily lives. I encourage you to look up his writings in such books as:
• Writings from the New Yorker 1927- 1976. (To order, click here.)
• Essays of E.B. White. (To order, click here.)

2. Odd jobs *

The current Brain Aerobics Weekly has a quiz in which we ask if you can identify the early jobs of people who are now rich and famous. In some cases, they were obviously ill-suited for their early work. Here are some facts that didn’t make it into the quiz:
• Howie Mandel was fired from his job as an amusement park ride operator in Toronto for making jokes to riders about the ride's safety.
• Barry Manilow was fired from a job at a brewery, when he reportedly left the truck door open and spilled the beer all over the road.
• Sidney Poitier was reportedly fired from his job parking cars because of his poor driving skills.
Source: http://www.hardlyfamous.com/stars/.

3. Today is the beginning of Japan’s Star Festival *

Although it is celebrated in August and later in some places, Tanabata begins today in at least some places. Among other traditions, it is a day to make a wish expressing your

hopes and dreams for your future, the future of your family and friends, and the future of the world. Write those wishes on a strip of paper (decorated or not) and hang it on a tree – or freshly cut bamboo, if it’s available. Then go out and star gaze – It’s good for the savoring part of your life.

* These items are easily adapted when working with people with Alzheimer’s disease.

Tips/ideas/insights to savor *

The word quiz in the current Brain Aerobics Weekly was inspired by the book Word Fugitives by Barbara Wallraff, which describes words that don’t exist in the English language but should. For example, have you ever gone through your dirty clothes hamper to find something clean enough to wear? Shouldn’t there be a word for that? Made-up words are called neologisms and Ms. Wallraff’s book describes others’ efforts to come up with them. Among the choices for dirty hamper searching were: skivvy-dipping, snifting and dry gleaning, all of which amuse me – clever and accurate!

That creative thinking process is a good way to get groups working together and coming up with out-of-the-box suggestions. Here are a few words people suggested were needed that Ms. Wallraff did not have neologisms for. Can you come up with your own, either on your own or within a group?
• What would you call what a dog does as it turns round and round before lying down?
• What’s the male parallel to women’s gossiping when they endlessly debate the merits of different cameras, televisions or barbecue grills?
• What’s a word for hoping to get someone’s voice mail but reaching the real person instead?
• What do you call a catchy melody (like “It’s a Small World After All”) that keeps replaying in your head against your will?

What else do you need a word for?

To order Word Fugitives, click here.

Let the ever-ripening Wiser Now website become the apple of your eye.
-- Host a workshop, purchase materials or click on the blue print to sign up for Brain Aerobics Weekly. and Wiser Now Alzheimer’s Disease Caregiver Tips.

June 30, 2009 – Volume 2, Issue #26

Quote to ponder under the apple tree

I love living. I have some problems with my life, but living is the best thing they've come up with so far.
~ Neil Simon (born July 4, 1927)

Resources to bite into

1. Born on the 4th of July *

Playwright Neil Simon has written hundreds of quotable lines, but today I particularly want to pass on his encouragement to believe in yourself and follow your bliss:
Don't listen to those who say, you’re taking too big a chance. Michelangelo would have painted the Sistine floor, and it would surely be rubbed out by today. Most important, don't listen when the little voice of fear inside you rears its ugly head and says, “They’re all smarter than you out there. They're more talented, they're taller, blonder, prettier, luckier, and they have connections.” I firmly believe that if you follow a path that interests you, not to the exclusion of love, sensitivity, and cooperation with others, but with the strength of conviction that you can move others by your own efforts . . . chances are you'll be a person worthy of your own respect.”

2. Celebrating Independence *

The current Brain Aerobics Weekly has an exercise in comparing statistics between Canada and the U.S. because far too many Americans are appallingly ignorant of our northern neighbor, and because Canada Day is July 1st and American Independence Day is July 4th. Moreover, all of the following countries also celebrate their independence in July: Algeria, Argentina, Belarus, Burundi, Ghana, Kiribati, Malawi, Peru, Rwanda and Venezuela.

3. Today is the 150th anniversary of Charles Blondin’s claim to fame *

Frenchman Jean-Francois Gravelet who went by the stage name Charles Blondin, first walked a tightrope across Niagara Falls on June 30, 1859 – 150 years ago – at the age of 35. It was a feat that he would repeat an incredible 17 times, with each crossing more daring than the previous one: Once he crossed the falls while blindfolded, once on stilts. Another time he carried his manager, Harry Colcord, on his back. Once he carried a small stove on his back, stopped at the middle of the rope and prepared himself an omelet, which he then ate as his amazed audience watched. He performed these risky feats until he was 74, then died peacefully in his sleep at 75.

* These items are easily adapted when working with people with Alzheimer’s disease.

Tips/ideas/insights to savor *

In my book, Getting to Know the Life Stories of Older Adults: Activities for Building Relationships, and in my workshops, one of my favorite exercises is “Make a Choice” in which I ask people to define themselves as one of two things. For example, “Are you more of an early bird or a night owl?” One of the most telling questions is “Are you more like a rose or a daisy?” because in their answers people usually describe characteristics they like about themselves, such as being cheerful and sunny for daisies and a more complex mixture of beauty and thorns for roses. It’s a great way to get to know people’s personal values. I adapted this activity in the current Brain Aerobics Weekly as an imaginative exercise that provides the opportunity to define yourself as a variety of flora from fruits, nuts, vegetables and flowers to the following two examples:

Describe yourself as a garden. What are its predominant features? Are you:
weedy or well-manicured?
full of blooming flowers and ripe vegetables or paved over?
adorned with whimsical gnomes or a labyrinth for serious meditation?
Or? ? ? and always say why

Describe yourself as a tree.
Are you evergreen or deciduous?
In what climate do you grow best?
Do you bear fruit or nuts? What kind?
Do you serve another purpose? What is it?
What are the characteristics of this tree that you share?

To order my book Getting to Know the Life Stories of Older Adults: Activities for Building Relationships, click here.
The first example above is adapted from the game Imaginiff. To order, click here.

Let the ever-ripening Wiser Now website become the apple of your eye.
-- Host a workshop, purchase materials or click on the blue print to sign up for Brain Aerobics Weekly and Wiser Now Alzheimer’s Disease Caregiver Tips.

Just a Bite June 22nd 2009

Quote to ponder under the apple tree

Growth itself contains the germ of happiness.
~ Pearl S. Buck (born June 26, 1892)

Resources to bite into

1. Murphy’s Law has many variations *

The current Brain Aerobics Weekly has an exercise in matching variations on Murphy’s Law (“If anything can go wrong, it will” – and some would add, “At the most inopportune time and it will be all your fault and everyone will know it.”) Personally, I take comfort in the idea that the universe is full of absurd maxims that can’t be reasonably fought. You have probably noticed many of them yourself, such as
The other line always moves faster – and if you switch lines, the one you were in will move faster.
If you put two pairs of socks in the dryer, when the load is finished one from each pair will be missing.
The Law of Window Polishing: It’s always on the other side.
What other ones can you add?

2. Columnist’s Day is June 23 *

Today is the perfect time to write an advice column or an editorial. What topic do you feel passionate about? Write out your thoughts and see if you can get them published in your local paper’s guest editorial column. Alternatively, think about the advice you might give to others – about dating, manners, fishing, bridge, home improvement or living well. Share it with your family or peers. If you have a lot to say, write a column weekly!

3. Happy Birthday Song is 150 years old this week! *

The melody for the song that would become “Happy Birthday” was composed on June 27, 1859 by Mildred J. Hill, according the Chase Calendar of Events. The “Happy Birthday” lyrics were added decades later by her younger sister, Patty Smith Hill. However, the words and music were eventually taken over by others and it wasn’t until long after the sisters’ deaths that their heirs won a lawsuit for copyright infringement on what is believed to be the most popular song EVER. Think of the millions of people who sing it every day! Who will you sing it for next?

* These items are easily adapted when working with people with Alzheimer’s disease.

Tips/ideas/insights to savor *

Also in the current Brain Aerobics Weekly is a discussion of an article that became a book by Amy Sutherland called What Shamu Taught Me About Life, Love and Marriage, (The original article for the New York Times can be found at http://www.nytimes.com/2006/06/25/fashion/25love.html) While researching another book about how animal trainers teach dolphins to flip and elephants to paint, she realized that many of the techniques would work on her husband. We, in turn, realize they provide good advice to almost anyone. Consider these ideas:

Approximations means rewarding the small steps toward learning a new behavior and ignoring behavior that doesn’t meet one’s standards. If you are trying to teach a baboon to do a flip, you first reward his hop, then his bigger hop and so on. In Ms. Sutherland’s case, she overcame her husband’s habit of leaving his dirty clothes on the bedroom floor by ignoring the piles and thanking him for each shirt placed in the hamper.

Incompatible behavior is based on the idea that one can’t do two things at once. Birds can only land in one place at a time, so a professional trainer who did not want African crested cranes to land on his head and shoulders taught them to land on mats on the ground instead. Rather than focusing on stopping a behavior, he taught them a new one. Ms. Sutherland taught her husband to stop crowding her while she was cooking by giving him parsley to chop or cheese to grate at the other end of the kitchen.

Least reinforcing syndrome or LRS is best explained by a dolphin trainer: “When a dolphin does something wrong,” Ms. Sutherland wrote, “the trainer doesn't respond in any way. He stands still for a few beats, careful not to look at the dolphin, and then returns to work. The idea is that any response, positive or negative, fuels a behavior. If a behavior provokes no response, it typically dies away.” This is how she now deals with her husband when he huffs and puffs about the house looking for lost keys. Eventually he finds them on his own, and she just says, "Great, see you later."

Think about these ideas and how they might work with your children, grandchildren, coworkers, and others.

To order What Shamu Taught Me About Life, Love and Marriage, click here.

Let the ever-ripening Wiser Now website become the apple of your eye.
-- Host a workshop, purchase materials or click on the blue print to sign up for Brain Aerobics Weekly. and Wiser Now Alzheimer’s Disease Caregiver Tips.