Lock Me In A Rest Home

Our oldest daughter is a planner.

Usually I see that as a good thing, but maybe not always.

You see, the other day she was planning for my me and my wife’s apparent eventual senility.

She wanted to know what kind of rest home we’d like her to put us in when we go nuts.

I understand that she’s thinking about this now because we have a couple of older friends who are going through memory and mental issues now.

But, alas, we aren’t that old yet! Hell, I’m only in my mid 50’s. And neither my wife nor I have any history of serious old age mental decline in our families.

But, our oldest daughter is worried about what she’ll need to do if we go nuts.

My wife muttered something about bringing in assistance so that we could stay in our home.

I suggested suicide as the best option.

There was some level of complaining about who would have to clean up the mess from my suicide, and alas, it was good to add some levity to the situation.

But, to be honest, I was serious.

I don’t worry much about my body crapping out, such is the nature of life. But I don’t think that life would be tolerable for me if I was to lose my mind. The mind is what I value, and what I don’t think I could live without.

So, I exercise it.

I exercise it by writing. By reading. By memorizing rituals. By conversing with people. And with Tarot.

I worry about reading Tarot for oneself on a continual basis. I wonder if that couldn’t tend to cause us to focus too much on the self. Even with things as simple as a daily card pull. But, I think that frequent, daily use of Tarot is superb exercise for the mind. So, I do other little daily things. Explore quotes with a card, as I post about here. Perform readings on current events, things of that nature. Things outside of my own ego.

Because I think this exercise of the mind is important. At least as important as exercising the body. Much more so in my case, given the relative importance I place on each.

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And I think that just like exercising the body, exercising the mind works. If we never use our mind, or push it, or challenge it, the mind will atrophy. If we push it though, it will remain vigorous.

And Tarot with all its delightful complexity is a wonderful tool for doing just that.

Interested in more?

Some of my favorite recent essays are collected over on my LinkTree.

Enjoy!