skating into his seventies.

I met an old Indonesian man named K who has already skated into his seventies. I say skated because the way he described retirement, there doesn't seem to be anything choppy about it. Every day he glides through a series of routines--tea, eating, napping walking, reading, saying hi to his neighbors and their dogs and then napping again. K has been married over fifty years to a cute Hawaiian named Rosie who is four-foot-seven-inches tall. He told me that he proposed to her the day after she'd had her wisdom teeth removed. She was laying on the couch with a swollen jaw and K joked that without her wisest teeth, he hoped she'd have a lapse in judgement and take him up on his marriage proposal. She did and I love their story. K and Rosie painted their entire house bright blue a few years ago. The paint chip, K said, didn't accurately preview how brilliant the color would be when brushed on their entire home. But even though the color wasn't ideal (and actually kind of horrible) the house doesn't seem to bother K, and I sense it's because he is skating. And because he is in his seventies.

The whole reason I want to tell you about K and Rosie isn't to tell you about retirement or the blue house or the wisdom teeth. I don't even want to talk about skating really. Mostly, I wanted to say that Ken and Rosie are getting along like I'd always like to be getting along. They are quietly bringing the box of Triscuts on our drive to the country. They are happily laughing about their imperfect history.  They are affectionately saying, "Oh, you!" They are raking their hair over the balding territories of their heads and letting their finger nails fall off when they do and not trying to fix a thing that has always been good to them and is just now needing a rest. And even while their memory is slipping (which I can only imagine is so difficult) they are actively trying to remember. Running the good times over their hearts. Letting their life glow like a hot coal after a good fire. I want to get/go along like that.