Have I just been reading too many books on aging? The last few weeks, I’ve been thinking about aging constantly: from the time I rouse my stiff legs out of bed in the morning until I surrender to sleep, and even when I wake up several times during the night.
While poking around in This Chair Rocks: A Manifesto against Ageism by Ashton Applewhite, I learned that better handwriting correlates with good health. This new piece of information fascinated me and planted itself in the forefront of my thoughts.
Initially, I fixated on the verb, ‘to correlate’. This is a word I don’t run across very often. I remember hearing a heated discussion years ago about correlation not being causation though I don’t remember the specific subject matter. I live with a person trained as a doctor and have a daughter-in-law trained as a nurse. Both of them, retired, are still adamant that correlating does not indicate causation.
I consult the dictionary as I wonder if I can get clarity about what’s behind their passion regarding this word. “Correlation: a mutual relationship or connection, in which one thing affects or depends on another.” So does this mean that better handwriting depends on and affects good health? Does it mean that good health depends on and affects handwriting? Maybe both at the same time? But then again, I have to remember to not assume one is caused by the other. What an interesting word!
Then I remembered a time when I had trouble writing cursive, in what seems like another lifetime, back in 2017, the year I was diagnosed with Normal Pressure Hydrocephalus by a medical student. They used a mnemonic (another interesting word!) to suggest I was dealing with NPH based on my WWW symptoms: Wet, Wacky, & Wobbly.
I had all of those symptoms, but in addition, I also noticed my handwriting looked different. No one said anything and neither did I, but I was shaken by how similar my cursive looked to my elderly father’s handwriting before he died at age eighty-eight. My eyes grew wide each time I saw my signature for a month or two. No matter how hard I tried, I couldn’t get it to look right! When I attempted to write a note to my granddaughter, I could hardly read it.
Thankfully, after the surgery to treat the NPH, my WWW improved drastically, along with my handwriting. I’m not sure how to incorporate this tidbit of knowledge into my thinking about health and the aging process except to pay attention to my handwriting which, by the way, I have noticed sometimes even I have trouble deciphering. I’m not sure if this is a sign of health, or if it just means I’ve been writing by hand less often, or if I just need to write slower when I sign my name or make entries on my Day-Timer calendar.
I’m just so glad to be aging and it’s fun to read what others say about the process of aging. Maybe facing my mortality in 2017 made me appreciate life and the beauty of cursive handwriting more.
IMAGE: I chose this image of a Buddha we saw in Hong Kong because it suggests relaxation and letting go and correlates with my goals for the summer.
