Theos-Talk Archives (August 1995 Message tl00158)

Dear Brenda,

While you're being etheric feeding your kids & sweeping the
floor, I try to be etheric while walking the hallways of
Summerfield Village, where I live. I should, like a bishop or
pope raise my fingers & say, as I pass each doorway "Bless you,
my child". The trouble is that I'm not etheric & patient enough
to pull it off, or I could be a skilled shaman in no time flat.
This is some of whom I've got near me, and could heal, if I had
the strength.

The woman across the hall from me walks swiftly around the
building at times "I'm so confused!", once she came to me with
part of her phone in her hand, and thought I was a genius when I
connected the jack for her; usually she's sleeping on her couch
with the TV blaring for company & the door open so she can see
what goes on in the hallway, which consists mostly of my
occasionally putting my head out my door to put out the garbage
or let out the cat. Next to her lives a pleasant old lady, who
still keeps her husband's violin on her cupboard, so I had hopes.
But when Nelson Mandela was elected President of South Africa,
she was very indignant, because how could they elect a man who'd
been in jail for 27 years. Next to me, there's a man who's not
quite yet 100. In spite of the fact that he doesn't really know
anymore which end is up, he does remember that if you sit down
next to any old lady in the building, you can put your ole paw on
her knee & invite her up for a massage. In the corner apartment
there's a couple. The way she tells it, he only wakes up at
dinner time, and then she gives him a ride down to the dining
room in their wheel chair, complaining all the time about her
weak heart. This is really a great opportunity for someone to
become a skilled healer, but somehow all the theosophy I've
learned & all the shamanism I've tried to absorb doesn't get me
there. I consider it my failure, but there you are. I very
apparently wasn't meant to be a shaman. Most times I just smile
"hello, how are you?" and am gone. Just so you know, I do have
some semi-rational friends in the building, a retired principal,
a librarian, and a dietician ...they just happen not to live on
my corridor.

Now for the material pleasures, I'm selfish. Having spent a
lifetime taking care of a husband & 2 kids, it's now time to take
care of myself. I only do things I really enjoy, if they turn
out other than anticipated, I quit right in the middle of
everything. I've just finished painting a great big aura onto a
canvas board, into which I'm going to put an Iroquois medicine
man next time the art class meets. I've just written up, for the
"Senior Times", a few Senior volunteers who are busy helping
others in devoted ways, and a church which manages to feed the
neighborhood poor on a shoe string, with the help of volunteeers.
The Friends of the Library is organizing a TV-off week for the
Fall, of which I'm co-chair. I'm also trying to get rolling a
theosophical study center, the Onondaga TS. If I didn't have all
these "material" activities, plus the Theos-l correspondence, I'd
have gone bananas long ago. Oh, I forgot, with one other
character there's a great friendship going because she used to be
a singer & I love operas. We sit in the vestibule & sing ... in
Italian ... & sometimes, when she gets exceited, I have to
restrain her from showing off publicly her gorgeous Sicilian
breasts. We also have season tickets for the symphony, together
with another good friend. But I asked the Siciliane's sons to
get an exta ticket for her aide, because I can't help her walk, &
she needs help. She must have had a torrid sex life with her
recently defunct, surgeon husband. This now manifests itself
with that she tries to explain to you how to do it, or else she's
flirting with the nearest male, in spite of tranquilizers, & when
there's no male around, a female will do. She has a great need
to be loved. She also owns 4 houses, & I don't know how many
diamonds. It's a good thing her sons take good care of her.

So that's a picture of one Senior Citizen's spiritual & material
life. I love being retired, but sometimes it can get you down.

Liesel