You may know Aneway (Wayne). He is one of the older members of eGenerations—yet only about six years older than I am. This is a tribute to all seniors who dare to join the boomers here; we elders may have greater experience with the power of writing.

Aneway is a bit shy about sharing his writing, but he has given me permission to post his work—with an occasional bit of copy editing. His writing is presented here to illustrate my frequently-made point: we all need to write about our experiences and share our knowledge.

You may remember some of Aneway’s expressions of despair, his resignations from this web site. I, for one, am glad he’s back. Here is what he has to say about writing and aging in some of his journal entries and comments:

“Twenty-one offspring at ages from 60 years to minus 5 weeks. Most of my hand-me-downs will not be material, but will be my memoirs, just recently written and covering the events of a family from its start to my finish. The Good, the Bad and the Ugly for what it is worth.”

“Seniorwriter, I think I have started writing out of frustration and confusion. I am frustrated because I cannot do what I always did and I’m confused because I don’t remember why. Writing of any kind seems to help put facts and figures in place, in order, while otherwise they are just bouncing around in my mostly dried-out gourd of a head. In some of us, God forgot to include the zerk fitting, and so we were never properly maintained.”

(I had no idea what a “zerk fitting” is, so I looked it up. It seems that it’s a fitting providing a way for grease to be forced into mechanical joints that need grease to prevent wear and make movement easy. Perhaps those of you who are mechanically inclined knew that. What an appropriate image for some of the problems of aging!)

In a longer journal entry, Aneway wrote, in part:

“I just finished proofing and printing out my memoirs, and possibly just in time, as I seem to be losing more of my abilities daily. Darned Golden Years. . . . .Wish I had met Seniorwriter earlier and started writing earlier. So many memories and so little time. Our offspring and theirs deserve to know something of their ancestry for a variety of reasons, one being health. I was able to offer some medical/genealogical information to the doctor of a 3-year-old grand-niece which will help prevent her from going through a lifetime of genetic Crohn’s disease.

“I would like to make this recommendation to the general membership of eGenerations: write it down in some, any form so that those coming after you will have some of your knowledge, your experiences to treasure, or in some cases, to avoid. Memories are all we have to leave sometimes, and oh yes, we’re all going to leave them here.

”I would like to thank you all for the help you’ve given me and the encouragement to keep on writing.”

Later, Aneway went on to follow my suggestion to try poetry. Impatient with the intricacies of the Rictameter form I often use, he made up his own variations (usually nine lines, different numbers of syllables), and that’s fine. Here are some of his poems:

Elderversity

Elderversity
Is a word that
Best describes me and
My physical condition
As I approach my eighty-second
And relinquish more control
Of life’s desires, wants,
And wishes.
Elderversity.

A Rhyming Rictameter about a Rictameter

A Rictameter
Unlike a barometer
Tells the scientific operator
Where he is in life
And not where he is in space
And what his chances are
Of returning to earth
And again doing
A Rictameter.

Better Than It Gets

It gets
Very discouraging sometimes
When being asked repeatedly
And it’s obvious to everyone
That you have seen better days
And you would rather be
Almost any place where
It’s better than
It gets.

Poetry for Dummies

Strolling down the river in the moonlight.
Thinking ‘bout the times I usta hold you tight.
Thinking it could have been a time like this.
Then I hafta stop and take a thought.
Wasn’t it a moonlight night in June
When we talked about a honeymoon?
We could even hear the wedding tune.
Then it busted like a big brick.
Well, it’s over now and we’re still free.
There’ll be someone else for you and me;
I’ll be swimming to that other shore.
You won’t ever see this man again.

Aneway and I are not  likely to be remembered among the world’s great writers, but I hope we are helping to illustrate the power of writing for those of us in our so-called “Golden Years.” I second Aneway’s advice: “Write it down so that those coming after you will have some of your knowledge, your experiences to treasure, or in some cases, to avoid.” Thanks for paying attention, Aneway—and thanks for your words of mature wisdom.