A few nights ago I had dinner with my ol' parents here in Port Townsend. I live nearby, so as to keep an eye on 'em, but don't live with them anymore for my own good. The road to hell is paved with good intentions, as somebody once said, and you can lay down a lot of pavement trying to help people with dementia, but it can cost you your own health if you're not careful. I wasn't careful last year.
But, moving right along, I had a nice, and very slow, dinner with my folks at their house, with a stupendous view of the Sound and Cascades. Mom , having forgotten something for the umpteenth time , said, " Getting old, Jeff". She was tired too.
"Getting old?", I said, " gosh mom, you've been old for years!". You have to have some love in your heart to say something like that around here, because Mom still has sharp elbows and knows how to use 'em. Luckily, she was also at the at the far end of the table.
Dementia is a very strange thing to be around, because it's completely unreasonable. You can lead a "horse "to water but you can't make 'em drink. I've tried. Can't make 'em think either.
But we could be together in the present moment. Even if you can't remember anything there is always the present. It's kinda like Zen , without memory. Or whatever.
Anyhoo, there we were, sitting at the table , when Dad noted ,"birdy!" , seeing a Bald Eagle perched in a sentinel Doug-fir out the window view. Dad loves seeing the eagles. Mom was noting her wisteria vine on the deck rail was "out of control", which I think is one of the funniest concepts in gardening. OMG, my yard is out of control! We can't be having that! She also noted a bright Towhee just outside the window, snooping in the wisteria. "Wow, that's pretty!" she said, with real excitement.
Then, as we slowly ate dinner, a rainbow appeared in the East. As rainbows sometimes do, it gradually evolved, brighter and brighter. One end was right on the stately Jefferson County Courthouse, on the distant hill across from us, and the other end was on a nearby, and also stately , Madrone tree. Where was the pot of gold? My values were on the lovely Madrone.
So there we were, rainbow watching. It was getting brighter and brighter, but it was time for me to leave. And that was OK because the parents were still into watching the bow. Soon , as rainbows also do, it was gonna fade out. I can imagine my Dad quipping " We old, but we outlived that rainbow!" Yes, the folks are old and senile, but still have a sense of humor.
Yet sometime, and probably not too long from now, my parents will also pass on. When they leave biology behind maybe they'll fly though a rainbow. Or possibly into a bright starry sky. Or more likely ,around Puget Sound, through twenty thousand feet of clouds. Of course the weather really isn't a factor in such a transition, yet I wish them a good trip into the Great Mystery, however it turns out.
But lately, we're still watching eagles, rainbows, and towhees. And that darn wisteria.

Jeff GibsonPort Townsend Wa