Senior Day at Capital Lakefair, thoughts on age and wisdom

Kathleen Anderson

I was with the Lions Low Vision Resource Center last Friday at Senior Action Network's Senior Day at Capital Lakefair. At one point, I noticed a Zumba class in front of the stage. After watching for a few moments, I realized the participants were, in my world, all fairly young, if indeed they had reached the “senior status” at all.

I turned to my fellow volunteer and said, “With age comes wisdom,” and she immediately understood what I meant. We smiled and watched the exercises continue for a few minutes more before returning to work. Exercise on grass on a hot day is, in my book, an event to be avoided at all costs.

Sunday, another classic example of age-related wisdom came to the foreground when President Biden announced he would not seek his party’s nomination for another term of office.

I cannot begin to imagine the level of stress that has to accompany anyone holding this office. The constant criticism, armchair quarterbacking, media manipulation, and flat-out lies flying around your head every single day would drive me crazy.

And if that isn’t bad enough, there is always the possibility some nut will climb up on a rooftop and start shooting.

So, I applaud his decision to step away (and hopefully) enjoy what remains of his life. There are still those who believe President Reagan’s dementia began while he was in office, since the diagnosis was announced not too long after he left the White House; which begs the question of who was really in charge during his later term.

Another historical moment has been observed in my lifetime – and I don’t even want to try to guess what will follow.

I am old enough to remember when the two parties worked together for the betterment of our country.

I hope I will be around when common sense becomes the norm again, when kindness and respect for our differences are given, and when people can agree to disagree and go on being friends.

The good news is that I often see random acts of kindness, which makes me hopeful for my grand family's future.

While at Senior Day, our usual “muscle men” were staffing the Lions Burger Den, one of our biggest fundraisers, so the loading of tables, chairs, visual aid equipment, banners and the tent was left to three seniors—one in her 70s, one who was 80 and one who was 57.

The 57-year-old did the lion’s share (pardon the pun) of the loading and unloading, and we received a lot of help from other vendors, in particular, a gentleman from St. Peter’s Providence Behavior Health, whose booth was next door to ours.

I never got his name, but I don’t know what we would have done without him!

When it was time to tear everything down and load up again, the 57-year-old, who happens to be one of my daughters, again did much of the work. By this time, it was really hot. We (and I use the term loosely) got everything loaded except the tent, which we got down, again with help from the same gentleman who helped before. But he had to load his belongings also, so we were not sure how we would manage to carry the tent to the loading zone.

At about this time, two Olympia Police Officers walked by, and I asked them if they ever do community service. They stopped and said, “Sure. What do you need help with?”

I pointed to the tent, and without further ado, they picked it up and loaded it into our van. Again, I did not get their names (I was brain-dead by this time), but they were gracious enough to pose for a picture with my daughter.

After another round of “thank yous,” we returned everything to where we picked it up, went home and collapsed.

It was a great event. We met many people, learned more about services available to our senior population and enjoyed some fantastic senior entertainment.

But the many acts of kindness will remain my favorite memories of that day for a long time to come.

Kathleen Anderson writes this column each week from her home in Olympia. Contact her at  kathleen@theJOLTnews.com or post your comments.