Tea For Two

I was listening to Pink Martini in my car, and Tea for Two came on, which reminded me of the nursing home singalongs we took part in on my mission and the magic those carried as the faces of the elderly residents lit up with a youth somewhat forgotten but less past than they allowed it to be most of the time. I loved seeing them come alive with memories of when their lives were more vibrant, more musical. It conjured picturesque visions of simpler times and understanding, of younger, more innocent or hopeful years.

After this memory, my mind wandered fifty years into the future, wondering if I'll be wrinkled and hunched over in a clinical facility, eating bland sandwiches and wondering who will come to visit me, living for the brief moments when I get to see and connect with loved ones. What will it be like to remember when I didn't need help with the basics of living, when I wasn't sitting in a room full of others who, like me, don't interact or engage well with those whose minds are sharp and whose lives are active? And I wondered: what kind of music will have value or bring sunshine when life takes on such perspective?

But while I reflect on such weightier things, I often move on fairly quickly, which I did this time as well. I smiled as I wondered: what will bring that sparkle back to our eyes at our social gatherings for the elderly fifty years from now?

I figure I'll think fondly to the likes of Harry Connick, Jr., Diana Krall, Ella Fitzgerald, and maybe Eric Hutchinson, Jamie Cullum, The Ditty Bops....who knows? But most people my age don't listen to such stuff. Maybe music won't light up most old folks' eyes in fifty years. Maybe music will have taken on a different role in our lives by then. I was amused as I wondered if we will all beam as we sing along together with Hit Me Baby One More Time, Can't Touch This, or perhaps a little Like a Virgin or I Like Big Butts. Hee hee, little old people singing along and clapping with I Like Big Butts. Seems somehow wrong, doesn't it?