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elonging, aging, awakening, exploring, knowingͲͲͲ I’m si$ng gazing into the visual of a print numbered 7/50, +tled “I Know Where I’m Going”. It was the ar+st, the # and the +tle that drew me to purchase this print. It is a visual of a lithe, young woman, bike helmet on her head, holding a wheel, wearing a cape of feathers over pedal pushersͶa pearl bracelet on her le2 wristͶliterally flying on her own accord over a visual of the map of England. In the perimeter of the print you can also see France and Ireland. Pearls with pedal pushers? Looking closer you can see the pearls are an a7achment on the sleeve of a shirt that reaches to the wrist. Every aspect of this piece of art shouts metaphor, higher meaning and teaches what all ar+sts mean to create with their art. My mother’s ancestors can be traced back into the 1600’s, being born in England. The face in the image could have well been me at age 18. Those are two obvious reasons I reached into my pocketbook.
February 2020
AGING & DISABILITY RESOURCE CENTER [ADRC] 721 Oxford Avenue Room 1130 Eau Claire WI 54703 Monday Ͳ Friday 8:00 am Ͳ 4:30 pm 715.839.4735 1.888.338.4636 &y: use Relay (711)
As I sit in my 78th year, approaching my ninth decade (yes, the first ten years count as a decade)Ͷthe si$ng doesn’t come easy. I’ve explored aging and ageism once re+ring and find it a very real phenomenon most of my ancestors didn’t experience. Is it a gi2? Only a fraternal grandparent and an aunt lived past my current ageͶ both living infirmed later years. I am grateful for my good health. Born in 1941, I have experienced fully, minus one year, eight decades. As I come closer to a move into my ninth decade ͲͲI will reach out into my 80’s during a brand new decadeͶthe 2020’s, making every effort not to reach back. I was told once by a psychologist we tend to live to the age we expect to live. I answered 95 when asked back then in my 40’s. It is unbelievable to me I have lived this long, especially with a father dying at age 59; a mother who never wanted to age, passing at age 69, just days before that zero could be added. I have a son, who lived a difficult life, giving up at age 49.
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The ending of a year (2019), especially one that takes us into a new decade, can be a +me for great release. The kind of release where le$ng go is similar to a bap+sm. A dunking in the trough kind of bap+sm, our head supported by the preacher’s hand. Never experiencing that kind of bap+sm, my imagina+on believes a release is created. Or perhaps it’s like the release of the Catholic’s confessional. Also unknown to me. I’m not sure these analogies come close to the release I want to cast off, give upͶthat’s it, give upͲͲ completely never to return. Think of a scab healing over and how we, at least I know I am always peeling away the healed piece of skin, only to have that healing return again and again for peeling. While the search is ongoingͶI’ve come to believe that is our purpose, like the girl in the piece of art to be flying and to always knowing where I’m goingͶeven when we don’t. Within the meaning of the artͶin the meaning of going ‘withinnian’ͲͲ Old English meaning ‘on the inside’. Sandra McKinney, ADRC Board Member