Talk on Bipolar at Trevose Fire House for Networking Group who work with Seniors

Terry Lee Farber, a former nurse turned attorney who works with elderly clients, invited me to speak on bipolar disorder at her networking group.

Each month they meet at a different location. Today it was at the Trevose Firehouse. I left super-early so I could find the catering company - MEI Catering - housed in the same building, an absolutely huge room with ceilings so high they could have fit a Michaelangelo on top.

I began preparing for the talk at 6:15 am. I'd laid out my clothes the nite before cuz that's the hardest thing. I wore a b'ful jacket I never ever wear b/c it has no pockets in it! I hadn't a single pocket on me. Then I couldn't find where I put my clothes.

Aha, I put em in the room with the meer - Sarah's old bedroom.

Outfitted and ready to go two hours early, I scanned some famous people with bipolar disorder on Wiki, so I could name them.

Wouldn't you know that on the way to the talk WRTI-FM played a piece by Edward Elgar, who had the illness? People know him as the composer of Pomp and Circumstance.

I also looked up the prevalence of the disease: 2.6 percent have it (I hope they subtracted me from the list) which makes nearly 6 million Americans, a figure easy for me to remember since I'm Jewish.

I also printed out the famous scream to show the group.....

not surprisingly, this painting of extreme dread was done by a man with manic-depression - Edvard Munch - from Norway.

I explained that bipolar d/o and manic-depression are the same thing, but the name was changed to indicate the two poles - highs and lows - but that I prefer the more graphic name, which does have a somber ring to it.

Here's Terry Lee with her parents, Don and Darlene. They're visiting from Sun City, AZ, where the temp is 100 degrees today. After the talk, Terry drove them to the airport for their 2 o'clock flight home.

Jen is head of the networking group. My talk took place next to this table where I spread out my things, including one of my award-losing poems.

Bill Blacker is a friendly guy who runs Home Instead Senior Care. They send out home health care aides. I asked the unlikely question if he'd heard of Donald Bush, who took c/o of my friend Simon, when he was dying of a brain tumor due to smoking.

Very nice website, Bill. I just checked and SO SHOULD YOU!!!

Speaking of smoking, Caroline Williams, is a certified smoking cessation teacher. She's the community education manager for a Behavioral Health Center for Older Adults called Aria Health in Langhorne, PA. It used to be called Delaware Valley Hospital and Frankford Torresdale.

People were very friendly, which you'd certainly expect at a networking place.

Thanks, Bill Blacker, for taking my photo. BTW, I'm down to only 2 pair of reading glasses, so after the talk, I went to CVS and found glasses for $26 apiece.

Never!

Then I went to my least favorite store, parked very far away so I'd get in a fast walk after eating a deelicious meal - cheese omelet with ham, huge delicious home fries, and fresh strawberries - walked in, found two pair of glasses and the cords to hang them on, for less than $10.

You guessed it.....Walmart.  Scuse me....Wal*Mart.

Here's Karen Irwin from Friends Hospital. I believe they're celebrating their 200th b'day. Doesn't Karen look marvelous? You'd never know.

She lives in Jersey and during the summer a 15-yo high school boy took his own life. He went to school with her son.

Her son's teacher gave the class an unusual assignment: write a poem celebrating life. Her son wrote a poem about the boy's death but made it into into a celebration of life.

I mentioned to Karen that other than third graders, school kids never write poems anymore. A lost art.

I had read a poem earlier called Cardboard Houses. I remember once I attended a Rotary meeting and read "A Mystical Experience at the Hardware Store" and people were passing notes to one another while I read.

I'd give anything to have read those notes.

This audience was great, tho, and paid total attention.

Here's some celebrities with bipolar: Edvard Munch, Ernest Hemingway, VA Woolf, Sylvia Plath, Vivien Leigh, Jack London, Florence Nightingale, Jane Pauley, Patty Duke, Jackson Pollack, Axl Rose, Robt Schumann, Ted Turner.

Since my camera was handy, when I got home I snapped a photo of my lamppost garden. Earlier this spring my daisies bloomed. But - look! - they're blooming again.

When you read this poem you can see where my unconscious is talking about myself.

CARDBOARD HOUSES

Pulled by mysterious forces from
my nighttime bed
I sleepily descend the stair
open the front door
and peek as a stranger
into the dark night.

A misty, charcoal world
lay before me
no moon
no stars
was this the earth I knew so well?

Two houses like cardboard cutouts
grinned at me from
across the street
windows dark
tilting slightly toward the other.

Had they just landed?
Were they sturdy or
in imminent danger of
collapse?
Did they see me or
have any regard for me?

I closed the door.
Then opened it again.
They hadn’t left.
Was it my imagination or
did I hear them laughing
under the cloudless sky?