Behold, The Sluggard

I wanted to post something tonight, but I am exhausted after today’s long work day and I know it won’t be long until I am wrapped in the sheets and comforters of our bed.

So I’ll point you to a beautiful documentary Mrs. Orr and I watched this past weekend. It’s called “Older Than Ireland,” and profiles Ireland’s citizens who are at least a century old.

It’s very interesting to be visually reminded that people are not necessarily nice, just because they’re elderly. It’s also good to be reminded how lonely the aged sometimes are. We think of them as invisible people who came out of the womb at their present age, quite forgetting that most of them remarkable lives full of tragedy and questions, and that those scenes still play on the screens behind their watery eyes as they sit in shabby little rooms or celebrate milestones with no one to help celebrate except paid nursing home staff.

The person I was perhaps most drawn to wasn’t on screen very long in the documentary. Her name was Winnifred, and she was interviewed while sitting next to a cookstove in a bleak room with the cinderblock wall painted emerald green. Winnifred talked quietly about how she wishes her children were back, so that she could have time for them, and to “mollycoddle them.”

I hope you enjoy it.

 ~ S.K. Orr