“Not in Assisted Living (Yet): Dispatches from the Edge of Independence!

Welcome to my World---Woman, widow, senior citizen seeking to live out my days with a sense of whimsy as I search for inner peace and friendships. Jeez, that sounds like a profile on a dating app and I have zero interest in them, having lost my soul mate of 42 years. Life was good until it wasn't when my husband had a massive stroke and I spent the next 12 1/2 years as his caregiver. This blog has documented the pain and heartache of loss, my dark humor, my sweetest memories and, yes, even my pity parties and finally, moving past it all. And now I’m ready for a new start, in a new location---a continuum care campus in West Michigan, U.S.A. Some people say I have a quirky sense of humor that shows up from time to time in this blog. Others say I make some keen observations about life and growing older. Stick around, read a while. I'm sure we'll have things in common. Your comments are welcome and encouraged. Jean
Showing posts with label police. Show all posts
Showing posts with label police. Show all posts

Wednesday, March 6, 2013

Soul Mates and Fingerprints


I think my fingerprints are disappearing. I wish I had an ink pad in the house so I could test out my observations. I could commit a crime and get inked up at the police station but that might cause a ruckus at the booking desk when they see what I see. Or rather what I don’t see---ridges in the skin on my finger tips. Where did they go? Does this happen to all old people? The next time I’m at the senior hall would I dare to line up a few ladies and do an inspection to compare their fingers to mine? When I was a kid my brother and I had a Dick Tracy Detective Kit so we could fingerprint each other and the cat. I wish I still had it which just goes to shows if you keep something long enough you'll find a use for it again. One of those kits sold recently for $100 on e-Bay. I suppose if I looked through my husband’s container of comic book hero radio premiums I might actually have a Dick Tracy detective badge in the house. I wonder if it would get me into the police station so I could fingerprint myself. I also wonder if I should be putting these thoughts down in writing at my age. I can see my nieces standing in front of a judge using my blog as evidence that he needs to sign those commitment papers in front of him. Not yet, girls! Not yet.

Growing old has its good and bad points. Growing old without your soul mate doesn’t have one darn thing to recommend it to anyone other than the Wicked Witch of the West but if memory serves me right from my fairytale reading days she wasn’t able to land a husband. So I’m guessing she never had a soul mate to lose. Hummm---that might be a good idea for a spin-off if I was into writing such things. The Wicked Witch of the West meets Baldwyn the Bastard from Bolivia and they have---you guessed it---a storybook romance that includes casting spells on virgins and castrating pigs, the four-legged kind. (“Good Eats!” as Alton Brown from the Food Network would say.) All kidding aside, why does the Great Kahuna in the sky separate soul mates, churning out widows like Land O’Lakes does butter? You’d think he/she would see the value in keeping soul mates in boxed sets while we’re here on earth that gets more valuable over time like old Dick Tracy crime stopping kits do.

Do you believe in soul mates or is it just something made up to explain why we are drawn to stay monogamous to someone we’ve pledged our lives to---someone with similar life goals, values and taste in crystal stemware? Do you believe we can find another soul mate after losing one? If I get my head out fairytales long enough I’d admit I believe soul mates are not only possible but it’s possible to have more than one soul mate in a lifetime---the old karmic soul mate and twin flames debate. Insert the fairytale mode back in my brain and I’d say, “Hell, no! Only one soul mate per customer and make your purchase last through the annals of time.” Soul mates are forever, I’d state with conviction. We keep finding each other when we’re recycled back on earth and in between times when we’re drifting around in the Great Unknown. Soul mates live happily ever after in storybook land. End of story. No buts about it.

From all accounts souls don’t take any form we can see, touch or hold so how will we find one another again in the next realm of existence? Are we just spinning around out there like clothes in a dryer hoping to meet up again, not knowing we’re already like a sock clinging to the inside of a pant leg? How many times have you looked for a lost sock, not knowing you’re already wearing it in the most unlikely place? I think our souls could be like magnetic jigsaw puzzle pieces that grab out and lock in place as we’re spinning in the universe. I think our souls have unique fingerprint-like IDs that don’t wear out like fingertip ridges do on old ladies who type too damn much. ©