This weekend I was watching television and somehow ran across one of my old favorite movies Auntie Mame and dove into it like an old friend. It is a delightful story about how life rolls around with ups and downs and good things and bad. My favorite line from the movie is: “Life is a banquet; most people are starving to death.” Mame used a not-so-nice synonym for the word people, but you won’t see it here…take a gander at the movie if you are too young to recall it!
From my perspective, Mame’s adage isn’t difficult to apply to my own life; I should be doing something fun every day, seeing the roses instead of the thorns, doing my best to live each day to its fullest. Part of my reason for this trip (other than getting warm) was to shake things up, get out of my three-quarter of a century rut. It was a do or die type of decision. I have a lot to do before I die.
My imaginary friends, Audrey and Logan and the rest of the characters in my Wrinkly Bits series (coming soon, I promise!), live in rural Idaho with limited diversions. Even still, they rise each day optimistic and enthusiastic wondering what the day will hold. They laugh and cry and love and don’t let the thorns get in their way. They face adventure after adventure, always moving forward, never back, even with the aches and pains that all of us have. Do you remember the motion song from elementary school? “Head, shoulders, knees, and toes.” Yup, mine all ache.
When I was writing this series, these characters jumped to my typing fingers from the wonky folds of my brain. Audrey and Logan faced the same challenges that all of us encounter: invisibility, isolation, uselessness, and frustration (how hard has it been for some of us to get a Covid inoculation?), not to mention achy shoulders, knees, and toes (I didn’t know what a bunion was until I reached age seventy).
I am thankful that my characters emerged from my brain as positive, fun-loving people, looking for love, adventure, and the banquet of life. Life is too short, we all know that, but I bear the responsibility to do something about it…so I don’t starve to death, as Mame said.
And BTW…wear the mask!
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