Quote to ponder under the apple tree
A hunch is creativity trying to tell you something.
~ Frank Capra (born May 18, 1897)
Resources to bite into
1. Begin anytime *
The current issue of Brain Aerobics Weekly celebrates Creative Beginnings Month with a quiz on the famous opening lines of well-known movies, and celebrates movie directors with a brief bio of Orson Welles. Like fellow director Frank Capra quoted above, Mr. Welles (born May 6, 1915) reached the pinnacle of his career relatively early in life, but if you know only that he directed the movie “Citizen Kane” (which premiered May 1, 1941) you miss out on most of the richness of who he was as a human being – painter, prodigy, magician, raconteur. (As a magician he appeared on “I Love Lucy.” See http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mUNc3ASCoeM.) Pinnacles of fame and fortune by definition are one time events, but creative beginnings can happen daily.
2. Very punny *
May 16 is the O. Henry World Championship Pun-off at the O. Henry Museum in Austin, Texas, where William Sidney Porter, the man who wrote most of his short stories under the pen-name O. Henry, lived from 1893 to 1895. O. Henry was not famous for incorporating puns in his writing, but he was famous for his surprise endings, which is the essence of puns. Here is a pun by Kirk Miller featured in the current issue of Brain Aerobics Weekly that combines a pun and a limerick (Limerick Day is May 12):
The ant basketball team made a vow
To get better, but didn't know how
No, it just wasn't right
To be lacking in height
What they needed were tolerance, now
3. Let time melt *
Another quirky personality featured in the current issue of Brain Aerobics Weekly is Salvador Dali, who would have turned 105 this week (born May 11, 1904). While Orson
Welles tried his hand in radio, theatre, movies and television, Salvador Dali’s lifelong passion was painting. Whether you have one interest or many, put your heart into it/them and let the days flow; let time melt away.
* These items are easily adapted when working with people with Alzheimer’s disease.
Tips/ideas/insights to savor
Salvador Dali never confined himself to painting things as they were, but allowed his imagination to float wherever it might take him. One of the lamentations I have been hearing often lately is how little time we have to daydream, to mull over challenges without the incessant noise of constant activity. Yet, if we give our minds free rein, who knows what problems they might solve?
I recently had the pleasure of hearing the researcher Jeffrey N. Keller, Ph.D., at an Alzheimer’s conference where we were both presenters. A woman whose husband was a participant in a drug trial that proved highly effective for him expressed her frustration that the trial was stopped when relatively few participants were helped by the drug, thus denying him further access to it. Dr. Keller’s response was that the present system of drug trials is not set up in a way that enables us to pre-select who might benefit most from a drug. He suspects that Alzheimer’s disease has multiple variations, and that in the case of the drug her husband benefited from, it was 100% effective on the people who had his variation, but because it wasn’t effective on the people who had, let us say, variations B – F, the trial was stopped. Eventually, he hoped, we will be able to better isolate variations in multiple chronic diseases so that we know which drugs are likely to be of greatest benefit to which patients, but without continuing trials on those isolated populations who find a particular drug beneficial – and so far, such smaller-focused trials are not financially viable for drug companies – progress isn’t easy. Someone needs to have time for daydreaming and mulling to solve conundrums like this.
A hunch is creativity trying to tell you something.
~ Frank Capra (born May 18, 1897)
Resources to bite into
1. Begin anytime *
The current issue of Brain Aerobics Weekly celebrates Creative Beginnings Month with a quiz on the famous opening lines of well-known movies, and celebrates movie directors with a brief bio of Orson Welles. Like fellow director Frank Capra quoted above, Mr. Welles (born May 6, 1915) reached the pinnacle of his career relatively early in life, but if you know only that he directed the movie “Citizen Kane” (which premiered May 1, 1941) you miss out on most of the richness of who he was as a human being – painter, prodigy, magician, raconteur. (As a magician he appeared on “I Love Lucy.” See http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mUNc3ASCoeM.) Pinnacles of fame and fortune by definition are one time events, but creative beginnings can happen daily.2. Very punny *
May 16 is the O. Henry World Championship Pun-off at the O. Henry Museum in Austin, Texas, where William Sidney Porter, the man who wrote most of his short stories under the pen-name O. Henry, lived from 1893 to 1895. O. Henry was not famous for incorporating puns in his writing, but he was famous for his surprise endings, which is the essence of puns. Here is a pun by Kirk Miller featured in the current issue of Brain Aerobics Weekly that combines a pun and a limerick (Limerick Day is May 12):
The ant basketball team made a vow
To get better, but didn't know how
No, it just wasn't right
To be lacking in height
What they needed were tolerance, now
3. Let time melt *
Another quirky personality featured in the current issue of Brain Aerobics Weekly is Salvador Dali, who would have turned 105 this week (born May 11, 1904). While Orson
Welles tried his hand in radio, theatre, movies and television, Salvador Dali’s lifelong passion was painting. Whether you have one interest or many, put your heart into it/them and let the days flow; let time melt away.
* These items are easily adapted when working with people with Alzheimer’s disease.
Tips/ideas/insights to savor
Salvador Dali never confined himself to painting things as they were, but allowed his imagination to float wherever it might take him. One of the lamentations I have been hearing often lately is how little time we have to daydream, to mull over challenges without the incessant noise of constant activity. Yet, if we give our minds free rein, who knows what problems they might solve?I recently had the pleasure of hearing the researcher Jeffrey N. Keller, Ph.D., at an Alzheimer’s conference where we were both presenters. A woman whose husband was a participant in a drug trial that proved highly effective for him expressed her frustration that the trial was stopped when relatively few participants were helped by the drug, thus denying him further access to it. Dr. Keller’s response was that the present system of drug trials is not set up in a way that enables us to pre-select who might benefit most from a drug. He suspects that Alzheimer’s disease has multiple variations, and that in the case of the drug her husband benefited from, it was 100% effective on the people who had his variation, but because it wasn’t effective on the people who had, let us say, variations B – F, the trial was stopped. Eventually, he hoped, we will be able to better isolate variations in multiple chronic diseases so that we know which drugs are likely to be of greatest benefit to which patients, but without continuing trials on those isolated populations who find a particular drug beneficial – and so far, such smaller-focused trials are not financially viable for drug companies – progress isn’t easy. Someone needs to have time for daydreaming and mulling to solve conundrums like this.
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.
-- 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.
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