I looked it up. See, I was totally wrong. I always thought that was an Amish saying, but it’s from Lewis Carroll’s Alice in Wonderland. The Rabbit, who else?

It wasn’t my intention to delve into the provenance of those words. I was feeling sorry for myself: too much to do, so little time, worries (desktop died), compllcations (lost copy?), oh, and Christmas.

I’m facing the wrong way. I’ve been having a good time but I haven’t appreciated how fortunate I am. Last week I went to the live performance of Antony and Cleopatra from the National Theatre in Great Britain at a Cineplex screen near me - a stunning production starring Ralph Fiennes and Sophie Okoneda. And this week I saw “Dames at Tea”- no, a friend of mine called it that - “Nothing Like a Dame” or” “Tea With the Dames” is a comedy documentary film, a delightful, indulgent, informative, poignant conversation with four old friends. talented Dames (so titled by the Queen): Judy Dench, Eileen Atkins, Maggie Smith and Joan Plowright, sharing 342 years of experience. Delightful !

I ate what my daughter-in-law calls “torture pie” at a family tree-trimming party; had a great conversation with someone even older (by a decade) than I at another family party where the cynosure of all eyes was my great granddaughter, Mia, eight months old on the 22nd. And I have baked lots of Amish Friendship Loaves (small ones) starting 50 days ago (each starter takes 10 days from stir to finish).

So why am I complaining?

Not.

Time is running out. I wish I could. But it’s that time of year and I must acknowledge the fact that, in the words of Sondheim’s song, “I‘m still here.”

That’s why we still write Christmas cards, not for the yearly cordial greeting but for the astonishing fact of our continued survival - or not.

This has been a difficult year for me, personally, but also a triumphant one in the persons of two new human beings: two-count-’em-two great grandchildren! They are the closest thing to immortality that anyone can have and I am delighted. I look forward to knowing them better, God grant me my marbles.

I’ve said before, that as I approach my nineties (in two years), I really have no role models in the family . One grandfather and one aunt, same side, lived to be nonagenarians but I was not geographically or emotionally close enough to either of then to have learned anything. I’ll have to wing it.

So, for that matter, will the medical profession, your doctors and mine. There aren’t enough case histories for them to be able to make educated guesses. Some people are trying to learn more and they are consulting the experts - you (if you’re still there) and me, that is, us old-timers who are still around and who can report to them while they are still articulate. You’ve heard of CLSA? The Canadian Longitudinal Studies on Aging began its first data collection early in 2002 and has just (May, 2018) released its first report on health and aging in Canada. I’m one of the 50,000 men and women between the ages of 45 and 85 who has enjoyed talking twice now - five years apart - to an interviewer and answering all kinds of interesting questions. They made me think of the movie Phenomenon and the test questions posed to the hero, played by John Travolta, who has suddenly become very brainy. He was asked to name as many animals as he could in a set period of time. He did so speedily in alphabetical order. That was a CLSA question and I used the hero’s method, probably not as fast or naming as many animals as he did. I think I was slower and named fewer creatures in my second go-round. Interesting to note.

So far, it’s not bad news. We’re told that 95% of CLSA participants rate their own mental health as excellent, very good or good. There’s more but what is most helpful to us (me) is that the purpose of the study is to provide clues on how Canadian seniors can age healthily. I’m all for that. We go on we go on.

Throw another Yule blog on the fire.