Cupcakes (and a wedding)

Last weekend, Alicia’s mom got married. It was really beautiful and everyone had a great time. True to form, my favorite part was the dessert. A wonderful friend of the family had made an array of delicious cupcakes that were so wonderful and beautiful. They were stunning to look at, and even more stunning to eat!

Actually, my favorite part of the wedding may have been meeting Bud, Alicia’s grandfather. As a public health and medical student, I spend a lot of time learning about everything that can go wrong as a person ages. We discuss at length the isolation and difficulty that can accompany reaching the mature age of 89 (if one reaches it at all!), but often forget that there are lots of dynamic and active older folks who should inspire us all to get moving and keep our senses of humor. Bud is one of these! Still hilarious (at least I thought so – he tells people he would be 90 but he was sick for a year), still golfing, and still catching a ride with a nephew to see his daughter get married, I’d be pretty happy if I were doing as well as he is when I get to his age. I don’t know what the lesson is here, but I’m convinced there is one. Maybe it’s that laughing keeps you young. Maybe it’s that we need to raise our expectations for the later years: absence of disease is not necessarily health. Maybe it’s that articulating the lesson doesn’t matter, just keep laughing, eating cupcakes and living your life.