Luminous Longevity Amongst the Campbells

 Longevity vs Long Life

Longevity is being healthy and active until the day you die quickly and peacefully.

Long Life is living a long time even confined to a bed.

     In a recent amusing text thread amongst me, my mom & my aunties - I volunteered to put together a list of documentaries / shows about longevity. Below is that list.

     Skippable amusing auto correction story: I kept using 'centarians' instead of 'centenarians' which auto correct kept changing to 'centurions' which somehow led to us trying to decide if Aunt Mary would make a better 'centarian' or 'centurion'. 

NETFLIX

Live To 100: Secrets of the Blue Zones*

1 season with 4 episodes

Each episode visits a different Blue Zone.

*Blue Zones are regions of the world where people tend to live longer and where there are larger concentrations of centenarians (people who live to be 100 years old or more).

NATIONAL GEOGRAPHIC – usually through Disney+

Limitless With Chris Helmsworth

1season with 6 episodes

Each episodes addresses thing which affect longevity

1 stress 2 shock 3 fasting 4 strength 5 memory 6 acceptance

In each episode Chris is learning / doing things to minimize the affects of these things on his longevity. The 6^th episode features his wife & is very sweet.

Another good reason to watch Limitless With Chris Helmsworth

TUBI**

The Longevity Film

Visits several Blue Zones including the one natural Blue Zone in the USA which is in Loma Linda CA. Talks about efforts to create some other Blue Zones here.

Also TUBI

How To Live Forever

Documentary about longevity. Starts out slow but gets better and is worth it to watch.

Features several interesting people; Jack LaLane @ 94, Edna Parker-the oldest woman ever, Phyllis Diller doing a stand-up routine late in life that is very funny, a 98-year-old kite flyer in Okinawa (he describes himself as a loaner which is almost unheard of in longevity circles where community is considered high on the list of things necessary)

There is also a bittersweet interview with Suzanne Somers talking about her efforts at longevity where she expresses confidence that she will live to be 100. She died at 77 of breast cancer. Really it’s remarkable she lived as long as she did considering she fought cancer off and on throughout her life starting when she was in her 20’s.

     Skippable anecdote– Speaking of community as necessary to becoming a centenarian – Campbells do community like they invented it.

     Skippable funny side note – There is talk about funerals in this one. Which reminded me of something amusing about Japanese funerals. It is a sign of status to have big crowds at your funeral. In order to make that happen strippers are hired to entertain the crowds. I had a good laugh thinking about someone hiring a stripper to entertain at a funeral at Musters Funeral home. I really think someone needs to include that in their pre-planning. Any volunteers? Wouldn’t have to be a female stripper. Bonnie? Brenda?

**If you stream but don’t have TUBI – it’s free with ads. Just open it. Freevee (formerly IMBd) same

Something on Tubi I found, haven’t watched but plan to:

Older Than Ireland – said to be a documentary about 30 centenarians in Ireland.

FREEVEE

The Human Longevity Project

I haven’t seen this one but it is supposed to be 9 episodes that look really good. I will watch it if I can find it.

PBS

Series called Sages Of Aging

I don’t get PBS so I haven’t seen this one but PBS always does a good job of anything it sets out to do so probably it’s good.

NPR

Does not have any talk shows on longevity but has several articles I want to check out on NPR.org

Things that look good that I haven’t found yet:

Longevity Hackers

Aging Backwards

Human Longevity – How To Live Longer & Prosper

In How To Live Forever – Marianne Williamson says – don’t retire instead refire your life. There is a lot of movement in learning about longevity. Enough to keep one entertained well into their 100’s.

As I find more – I will send it your way.

 

I usually end a blogpost with a song but instead here is the trailer for Limitless because the eye candy is only made better by the ear candy.

 

 Note to self - read John Robbins book Health at 100 

 

Let's Talk About Text Baby

 

I have run into many delightsome words lately. Time to share!

Author Emma Jameson is the source of these words:

Lady Juliet in the Dr Bones books (I highly recommend this series) uses-

Fatuity – which means absurdity or foolishness or stupidity

Jejune (pronounced juh joon) – which means naïve or simplistic or superficial. When it’s used to describe writing it means dry & uninteresting.

Codswallop – which is a perfect word for untrue or nonsense – IMO Donald Trump is full of codswallop.

In Jameson’s series with main character Jem Jago ( This series is not my cup of tea) uses –

Quagmire – which means soft, shaky ground or a difficult, precarious or entrapping position or predicament. Very appropriate sounding word.

 

One of my favorite authors of all time – Amanda Quick (aka Jayne Ann Krentz) always gives me new or heretofore unexplored words.

Miasma – 1 an unpleasant or unhealthy smell or vapor 2 an oppressive or unpleasant atmosphere surrounding or emanating from something

For example – when I opened the door upon returning home from school and a miasma of fish smell wafted out to me – I knew – it was salmon cakes for supper night. Yuck.

Denouement – I so love this word. Pronounced day noo mawn 1 final part of a narrative when the strands of the plot are drawn together and all the stories are explained or resolved 2 climax of a chain of events when something is decided or made clear

For example – The denouement of the third season of Bridgerton was all I hoped it would be.

Maelstrom – 1 a powerful whirlpool in a sea or river 2 – a situation of confused movement or violent turmoil

For example – I entered a maelstrom of people attempting to leave when the Taylor Swift concert ended.

 

Speaking of Ms Swift – she uses a word in the lyrics for her song - Karma – that is very satisfying –

Opacity – which can mean lacking transparency or translucence or opaqueness – it also can mean obscurity of meaning

Taylor Swift - Karma (a great song to sing along to in your car)

Avid readers take on Emma Jameson books

I finished & very much enjoyed the Dr Bones series - so far. There are supposed to be more. 

I like Emma Jameson at a time when trust for a new author does not come easy because I don't want to be bruised emotionally by a book. There's enough of that in real life.

Now I am going to try the first book from Jameson's - Jem Jago Mystery series. 

Dr. Benjamin Bones Mysteries. 

Bones in the Blackout / Bones at the Manor House / Bones Takes a Holiday / Bones Buried Deep

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Lord & Lady Hetheridge cozy mystery series

Ice Blue / Blue Murder / Something Blue / Black & Blue / Blue Blooded / Blue Christmas Untrue Blue / (London Blue)

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In partnership with Bookouture, Ms. James writes the Jem Jago Mystery Series

A Death at Seascape House/ A Death at Candlewick Castle / A Death at Silversmith Bay / A Death at Neptune Cove / A Death at Bay View Hotel

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Imagine Dragons - Bones

Tom Robbins gave me multiple wordgasms

Some words definitely give me a mini orgasm because of their meaning or how it sounds to say them.

Recently I am rereading Jitterbug Perfume by Tom Robbins & I discovered the word 'mephitic'. I love when books have words that are new to me that I can look up then or save to look up later. Not sure how I missed this word the previous times I read this book but I have it now. Delightful!

Mephitic means "noxious stench from atmospheric pollution" according to google search. In this case Robbins is referring to smells that stick to the walls of old apartments through "generations of salmon cakes frying and broccoli boiling".

What a useful word. And it rolls off the tongue.

Undine means mythological figure of European tradition, "a water nymph who becomes human when she falls in love with a man but is doomed to die if he is unfaithful to her" according to google search.

Shillelagh means a wooden walking stick or club usually made from a Blackthorn branch with a knot or knob on top often associated with Ireland or Irish folklore. Mr Robbins, of course, uses it to indicate a penis ready to perform it's intended duty.

Plangent means deep, low expression of sadness - sad wretched melancholy

Lambent means playing lightly on or over a surface - light sparkling humor

While 5 wordgasms is sufficient to make one sleep like the dead for several days - Mr Robbins is relentless in his hedonistic pursuits & has given me orgasms of a different nature (though none physical) to be discussed in another blogpost.

The Police - De Doo Doo Do - a song about the importance of words

Rewilding

 I watched this lovely youtube video 

Rewilding A Forest | Artist and Poet Maria "Vildhjärta" Westerberg

I have been looking at changing (possibly rewilding) my life. I watch this & I want to own a forest so that I can nurture & safeguard it. 

I don't think that is what I am going to do next. I don't think I have arrived at my next reincarnation. Certainly trees will play a part. And writing & reading poetry/prose. And art in the sense of enjoying it. And chanting.

I'm trying to be patient while forces align.

Tomorrow Is A Long Time - Bob Dylan

THE DALI MUSEUM ALWAYS INSPIRES SOMETHING: CREATIVITY, MADNESS, LAUGHTER...

 Tonight Liz & I dilly-dallied at the Dali Museum in St Petersburg, FL. There was an exhibition that featured the usual Dali works that stay at the museum with the addition of 22 visiting paintings of famous impressionists.

Rocky Crags at L'Estaque by Pierre-August Renoir

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Antibes (Afternoon Effect) by Claude Monet

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Vase of Flowers by Henry Matisse 

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I love this quote by Manet.

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View of Portdogue Port Alguer 1920 by Salvadore Dalit

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The museum itself reflects the bizarre, whimsical nature of Salvador Dali himself.

I asked the lobster phone: when did Dali move from impressionism to surrealism & AI acting as Salvador answered:

"The metamorphosis from impressionism to surrealism was not merely a shift but a lavish eruption from my subconscious mind around the 1920's. It was akin to awakening in a dream draped in the vivid tapestry of the unreal."

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We ventured into the gift shop and bought this card featuring a Dali painting that they have in the museum's permanent collection:

It came in this bag:

I used the bag to prove that I am a goof:

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When we got home this one was not happy:

This song is dedicated to poor neglected Cooper:

Miss You by The Rolling Stones

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Self Knowledge Happens

 Sometimes I think I want Johnny Depp. Then I realize I really just want Roux from Chocolat.

Sometimes I fancy Ncuti Gatwa. Then I realize what I really want is to watch him dance with his kilt on as Dr Who.

Sometimes I adore Matthew Goode. Then I realize I want the sexual tension & banter with Declan in Leap Year. For about ten minutes. After that it would probably be annoying.

At 66 what I really want is personal space. And not to have to please a man / mate. And all my memories of men past. And intelligent conversations about interesting people, places and things. 

And maybe - just maybe - a fun, safe, flirtation free of drama. Maybe. 

I think I might have found the theme song for my life. Miranda Lambert's Bluebird.