The Oppenheimer Report 1/13/20

As I try to do every weekday morning, shortly after 10am last Friday, I was listening to Tech 5, a show hosted by my friend Ben Harrison. Ben was talking about the first full moon of January, which I have learned is also known as a “wolf moon”. This first full moon of January, and in fact the first full moon of the decade, is apparently notorious for fomenting lunacy and strange behavior. I enjoy these five-minute Tech 5 shows because I often learn something new. They are often interesting,  often humourous, and they are almost always thought-provoking. What I find most entertaining is that Ben, an octogenarian, still has a young and inquiring mind. My dad was like that, and had an inquiring mind almost up to the day he passed, months away from his 99th birthday. He was a voracious reader, a lover of history, and a consummate student of life. Blessed with a disarming wit and charm, he made friends with people of all ages and from all walks of life.  He was genuinely interested in learning other people’s stories. 

Presently, we have Shauna’s mom, Ethel “E.T.” Taylor, visiting us from Toronto. Last Tuesday, we celebrated her 95th birthday, quietly in the comfort of our home. On air last week, I described E.T. as a force of nature. She’s intelligent, strong-minded, funny, and does not suffer fools well. In fact, when Shauna introduced me to her parents for the first time, Ethel reportedly turned to her husband Syd and whispered, “This isn’t going to last.” Shauna shares that intelligence and strength, and originally, it is what attracted me to her. As the producer of E.T.’s weekly “Martini Music” show on Hunters Bay Radio, I have come to appreciate her encyclopedic knowledge of the great music from her era. I have always maintained that, regardless of genre, good music and good songwriting are timeless. E.T. has introduced me to some remarkable bands and vocalists since we began to do the show. We have now produced 186 shows so far.

As a baby boomer, I have spoken at great length in past report about my experiences caring for my parents in the end stages of their lives. In fact, my experiences with the end stage care of my mom and dad were challenging. I know I’m not alone, but I was one of the first in my age group to deal with this. It made me feel isolated and alone. My mom’s five-year battle with Lewy Body dementia was the hardest emotional challenge I have ever faced. It was confusing, and very painful for everyone involved. Worst of all, I did not know anyone who could relate to our struggle. That said, I kept telling myself that both my parents were good to me, and whatever curveballs life threw me, I owed them a debt of gratitude for putting up with all my BS in my formative years. Now that they are gone, I am thankful I stepped up.

The other day, a young friend of mine was commenting about his struggles to raise his exuberant young son, presently nearing the end of his “terrible twos”. While I’m not a parent myself, I realize parenting, or any kind of caregiving can be a thankless task. It seems to me that, at least in North America, we are becoming less receptive to the lessons we can learn from our elders’ experiences. Other cultures value this asset more, and it concerns me. As part of the aging boomer demographic, I am perhaps more sensitive to that trend than most. I think that last Friday I was feeling a touch of the lunacy to which Ben Harrison referred in his “wolf moon” segment. It was, after all, the first full moon of the decade, and there was a lunar eclipse to boot. Maybe it has more of an effect on us codgers. I’m one of those that believes the full moon has an emotional effect on me. In any event, the message I want to convey in this week’s report is that there is something to be learned from everyone, the elderly included. They say no one gets out of here alive. I think the trick to leading a good life is to make it a mission to learn from, and embrace every phase of your life. And if you figure out how to do that effectively, would you explain it to me? I’m just howling at the moon.


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 Written by Jamie Oppenheimer ©2020
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Jamie Oppenheimer, Songwriter, Author, Blogger, Radio Producer, & Host has been writing THE OPPENHEIMER REPORT every MONDAY since 1992 and has published the articles on his blog since 2006. We are including Jamie's weekly reports, as a feature of #HuntersBayRadio, The Bay 88.7FM.

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