Just Plain Bill

From mute to music,

From static to standing

and moving and dancing and…

There is a growing body of research on the seemingly magical powers of music on previously non-speaking and nearly immobile people in numerous homes for senior citizens.

Recently, the Apple computer home page featured an article on the new film, Alive Inside, which “…explores the power of music to stimulate and even temporarily restore memory.” The movie chronicles the growing movement in senior care, providing customized recordings for Alzheimer patients who have been losing memory and becoming increasingly non-communicative.

These customized recordings, heard through earphones, have resulted in the patients showing the ability to mouth or even sing words to songs, even stand from their walkers and wheelchairs. In every case, there’s a noticeable increase of energy and attentiveness from the seniors.

I can personally validate the claims. I have seen this magical phenomenon with my own eyes and experienced it with my own ears and heart.

I’m fortunate to have been a member of a small musical group in a company I worked for 15 years, World Savings and Loan. Our group was called The BETTE Band, an acronym for Bringing Entertainment to the Elderly. We played at different and diverse convalescent homes twice a month.

Over the nearly nine years I was a part of the group, the composition of the band could vary from performance to performance, but it often included a guitar, banjo, viola, drums, saxophone, keyboard, an occasional song leader, and at every performance, our Chief Operating Officer, Jim Judd, added a special element when he told jokes and sang with his dummy, Stumpy, demonstrating his awesome talent as a ventriloquist.

We were able to see the nourishing impact of the music we played on the residents. We often saw amazing displays of energy and enthusiasm. I can still see the elderly woman who raised her walker above her head and danced a few steps to the beat of “You Are My Sunshine”. On most other occasions, there was a noticeable increase in the energy level of the residents, as they clapped their hands and rocked back and forth to the beat of the music. On still another occasion, the nursing home staff told us that a resident came out of his room to hear the music who hadn't come out of his room in a year.

At one special event, we played for an Alzheimer ward at Christmas time.  After the door was locked behind us, we proceeded to play a selection of well-known holiday music very softly. It was amazing to see many of the residents mouthing the words, and even moving to the rhythm, surprising the attendants.

Yes, music does have magical powers. We have many wonderful and lasting memories of the music and the joy that music brought to folks who, in all too many cases, had been forgotten by their friends and family.

Perhaps hopelessness causes friends and family to be absent. Perhaps it’s just too much sadness. But maybe, just maybe, they will try to see their loved ones again, seeking the magic themselves and bringing their loved one’s favorite era music with them. The loved one might become energized! Might sing! Might even dance with them again, like they did when the visitor was a child...or a bride.

Please try to help find the magic.  

Just Plain Bill

Depression

How do you know you’re depressed? How do you know if you’re just having a bad day or that you’re just sad during those times when things don’t seem to be going well, in spite of being surrounded by strong evidence that you’re OK? You know that you “matter” – but you still feel like crap. How do you know the difference?

From what I remember about my growth and development during the impressionable years of my childhood, I did not receive much in the way of positive stokes of encouragement or praise of any type, except for the qualified statement, “not bad.”

Regardless of what I’d label as less-than-stellar parenting, I continue to feel that I turned out OK, free from dependence on any substance or excessive whining. One tendency that did develop and still persists is the need to “check-in” with everybody – especially my family and loved ones - to see if everything is “OK” with them. And, if not, I assume the obligation to try to make things better. I believe this is labeled as “caretaking”: feeling responsible for everyone’s happiness.

At this late stage of my life, I’m still working on turning off this tendency. Intellectually, I know this caretaking attitude is not healthy – for me or those whom I’m committed to “help” – but it continues to be a challenge to just let others “be” with their own stuff.

Perhaps it’s related to my subtle yet powerful need to feel needed. Not sure, but I continue to work on that challenge.

A related subject, “self loathing” may be connected in some way, but that’s a subject for a future blog. (Please let me just “caretake” you a little at this time.)

(<( ;- o)>)

Just Plain Bill

Keys

While I was rummaging through one of my toolboxes, I ran across about 25 keys on a key chain. Looking through the keys, I recalled how I felt as a young boy in the ‘40s. Having keys was a status symbol, perhaps indicating one was “responsible”, or “trusted.”

As a little boy growing up as a member of the depression or veteran generation, keys were like little pieces of magic. I treasured any I had and yearned for collecting more – regardless if the keys worked in any locks to which I had access.

As a student of all generations, I‘m very interested in Gen X (born between 1965 and 1976). This generation has often been referred to as the “Latchkey Generation”, their members known as “Latchkey Kids”. During their formative years, these children were often given a key…a “latchkey”…to let themselves into their home after school, as a growing number of mothers were working away from the home. Stay-at-home dads were very uncommon. Parents working from home were uncommon too.

Because of the generation in which I grew up, I didn’t have a “latchkey”. They weren’t necessary, as most homes –and cars – were never locked. It was certainly a different time relative to the need to “secure” one’s home or automobiles.

Back to my stash of keys: Possessing these keys is not nearly as much a treasure as they once would have been. Nowadays, most hotel rooms…and even automobiles…and many homes don’t even require keys!

Nevertheless, I’m having a hard time discarding this stash of keys as my subtle need to hoard makes me pause and wonder if they may fill some “need” in the future.

But, I doubt it. Into the garbage they will go today.

Or next week, for sure! (Or when I find the key to the garbage can…)

Just Plain Bill

Voice from the grave

How’s that for an attention-getting title for a blog?

While talking with an insurance adjuster the other day, I was asked how long I would be teaching. Her record showed I’m presently up in years and beyond the typical retirement age. I said, “I feel like I’ll be able to teach right up to the time when I won’t be able to talk…maybe even beyond the time marking the end of this mortal journey!”

I’m blessed with the passionate interest, capacity, and belief that one of the greatest gifts one can give to others is the enhancement of their knowledge, skills and belief in themselves. I treasure that I have “teacher” as a prominent title in my legacy.

With the advent of the Internet and all of its powers of communication, involvement, and connection through an ever-growing number of channels, I’m enabled to connect and engage with an unlimited number of learners – regardless of my “age.”

It’s a glorious time to be alive, to be able to take advantage of the tsunami of technological developments that come to us each day. The challenge of “keeping up” with “what’s new” helps me eagerly look forward to each day.

Finally, with the “permanence” of what I write on the Internet, I know that at least my written word is somewhat immortal. (Thanks to Allyn Geer, my editor, for helping make those words proper, and correct!)

Just Plain Bill

Hand writing vs. computer keyboarding. Different?

Which do you prefer – and why?

If I asked you to write something, would you write it by hand or use a computer?

Does using a keyboard to write involve the same mental processes as using a pen or pencil? A stylus? And what difference does it make?

As a community college teacher of business writing, my course focuses on the different types of writing found in today’s workplace: email, texts, instant messages, reports of all types, correspondence between customers and the organization and colleague-to-colleague, and even company blogs. It also includes the critically important skills of preparing an effective resume and cover letter.

All these skills involve writing on a computer, something most people beyond the boomer generation are used to. But if asked, most of those same people would honestly answer they are often challenged to write anything by hand. 

As an exercise that attempts to engage the writer at a different level, my students are asked to write on a business topic each week – by hand. It’s interesting to experience their varied and often agitated responses, including surprise that they’ve discovered they can still write by hand, that their composition may take on a different “feel”, shared feelings of being lost or fearful without “spell-check”, and even challenging me to translate or comprehend their writing as many feel their handwriting is nearly illegible.

While there may not be many, if any workplaces left that are free from keyboarding, it’s of interest to me that the current generation may lose the skill – and art – of handwriting. Reports of grade schools eliminating cursive writing from their curriculum abound. Are we seeing the passing of what was once a valued and beautiful form of art? (In my home, I have a framed message in Japanese calligraphy prepared by a visiting professor who was the calligraphy champion of his prefecture as a youth.)

Ava Jae, writing her blog entitled Writing by Hand vs. Typing: Is There a Difference?, addresses that question and includes powerful observations. (Please excuse the length of the quote, but I felt it important to include the reasoning behind her conclusion):

The reason I like handwriting my revisions is simple — I'm more careful when I write by hand. I'm not entirely sure why that is, but my guess is that it has to do with the process of typing versus handwriting itself. You see, typing is largely an automatic thing — your fingers jot down the first words that come to mind and allow you to keep up with the flow of your thoughts relatively well, which makes it a really good instrument for fast-drafting.

Writing by hand, however, is a completely different animal. Unless you're Flash or otherwise ridiculously fast, handwriting takes more time — you can't just tap a button and watch a letter appear, you have to write the letter out by hand, and although it doesn't take very long, it certainly takes longer than typing. When writing by hand your thoughts often race ahead of the actual writing, and as a result of that, you have a little more time to think about the words you're actually putting on paper. In addition to this, there isn't an easy backspace button to press if you write a word or sentence you don't like, which for me at least, causes me to be more careful with what I commit to paper.

In short, writing by hand forces me to think about the words I write as I write them, something that has proven invaluable while working on revisions.

I realize that there’s no going back to the “good old days” of everyone learning cursive writing. I was raised with the Palmer method – moving the writing hand on the fatty part of the arm in a circular motion. Despite the seemingly endless practice required for a 1940s third grader to master, I’m glad that I experienced that skill and discipline. I’m sure it has influenced the relative degree of legibility my writing now reflects.

A footnote: I could also reflect on how I was most likely intended to be left-handed, but since we used an ink pen with a removable stylus, dipped into an ink well in school, writing with the left hand caused the hand to smear the ink. Hence “everyone” was required to write with the right hand – but that’s a topic for a future blog.