Dialogue and dessert buffet and A Christmas Carol at Humainologie Gallery & Store this coming We

“’I will live in the Past, the Present, and the Future,’ Scrooge repeated, as he scrambled out of bed. ‘The Spirits of all Three shall strive within me. Oh Jacob Marley! Heaven, and the Christmas Time be praised for this. I say it on my knees, old Jacob, on my knees.’ …

“’I don’t know what to do,’ cried Scrooge, laughing and crying in the same breath; …’I am as light as a feather, I am as happy as an angel, I am as merry as a schoolboy. I am as giddy as a drunken man. A merry Christmas to everybody! A happy New Year to all the world! Hallo here! Whoop! Hallo!”

- Charles Dickens, “A Christmas Carol”

The year is getting old, and we are getting older. We might take “Getting Old” as our topic for dialogue this coming Wednesday December 11. We’ll meet at the Humainologie Gallery & Store, 1514 Seventh Street SW, starting at 6 PM. If the topic “Getting Old” suits you, I’ve appended below a few good quotes and a good question to get us started. I’ll send a book synopsis with a reminder by Tuesday night.

Each of our dialogue events is like a box of chocolates, you never know what you’re going to get. Last Wednesday one of our newcomers was an opera singer. She inspired us with a minute or two of operatic performance, and I suggested we all try to measure up to this and do our check-in next week in operatic voice. I don’t think anyone took me seriously.

Arthur

A Good Question

(Think creatively about this and if you are willing, share your thoughts with us on Wednesday.) How would you like your friends to remember you? If they were asked, “Why did you think so highly of (your name here)?” what would you like their response(s) to be?

Some Good Quotes

“It's paradoxical, that the idea of living a long life appeals to everyone, but the idea of getting old doesn't appeal to anyone.” – Andy Rooney

“I was getting old, man. I was staring 27 in the face.” - Charlie Bell

“As I started getting older, I realized, ‘I’m so happy!’ I didn’t expect this! I wasn’t happy when I was young.” - Jane Fonda

“If you’re not getting older, you’re dead.” - Tom Petty

“…for at any time each of the moments of which life consists is dying, and that moment will never recur. [And isn’t this] a reminder that challenges us to make the best possible use of each moment of our lives? It certainly is, and hence my imperative: Live as if you were living for the second time and had acted as wrongly the first time as you are about to act now.” - Viktor Frankl