Archives for November 2005

“LOS ANGELES, California (AP) — Actor Pat Morita, whose portrayal of the wise and dry-witted Mr. Miyagi in “The Karate Kid” earned him an Oscar nomination, has died. He was 73.”

Of course there were numerous other roles that he played, including his time on Happy Days.

“For years, Morita played small and sometimes demeaning roles in such films as “Thoroughly Modern Millie” and TV series such as “The Odd Couple” and “Green Acres.” His first breakthrough came with “Happy Days,” and he followed with his own brief series, “Mr. T and Tina.”

“The Karate Kid,” led to three sequels, the last of which, 1994’s “The Next Karate Kid,” paired him with a young Hilary Swank.

Morita was prolific outside of the “Karate Kid” series as well, appearing in “Honeymoon in Vegas,” “Spy Hard,” “Even Cowgirls Get the Blues” and “The Center of the World.” He also provided the voice for a character in the Disney movie “Mulan” in 1998.

Born in northern California on June 28, 1932, the son of migrant fruit pickers, Morita spent most of his early years in the hospital with spinal tuberculosis. He later recovered only to be sent to a Japanese-American internment camp in Arizona during World War II.

“One day I was an invalid,” he recalled in a 1989 AP interview. “The next day I was public enemy No. 1 being escorted to an internment camp by an FBI agent wearing a piece.”

It is close to midnight and I have survived another family dinner. I don’t want to give any false impressions. I love my family and I enjoy spending time with them but right now there seems to be a higher level of stress than normal. I know the reasons why and some of them are things that I cannot help and perhaps that is why it is hard for me.

I am exceptionally lucky to have three grandparents. Each one of them is in their 90s. Within a few months two of them G-d willing will turn 92 followed by my other grandfather several months later.

From a mental standpoint all three of them are in good shape, although you can see the impact of age upon them. Their memories are not quite as crisp and there are little things that make it clear that they are not as young as they once were.

I am close with all of them. Each one of them has given me so much and asked very little in return so I am happy to spend as much time with them as I can because the end of the race approaches.

But I have to admit that I am finding some of the effects of aging to be hard. I admit that with a heavy heart because I know how much these changes bother them and I can’t help but feel some guilt.

One grandfather and one grandmother are legally blind. One grandfather broke his pelvis around last March and since then has been forced to use a walker. I find it very hard to see him with the walker because he has always been fiercely independent, not to mention that in some ways I identify best with him. I see many similarities between him and myself.

The little things that we take for granted have gotten to be tough. As I mentioned he is legally blind so he is not able to read the paper and books the way that he used to. Since breaking his pelvis he has found it increasingly difficult to get up from a seated position and even putting on shoes is hard.

I help him with all of these things. I do it with a smile and he doesn’t complain but I can feel his frustration. He used to tell me that if he had known that he was going to live as long as he has he would have taken better care of himself. I feel some guilt because I don’t want him to be embarrassed and sometimes there is not much that can be done about it.

He has gotten stuck in his recliner a couple of times and in order for him to get out I had to basically pick him up.

The docs tell us that all three of my grandparents could keep on going for many years or it could all end tomorrow. I try hard to be thankful for the time that I have with them and to not worry about them but it is hard. One little fall and it could all come crashing down.

Did I mention that there is a severe hearing loss. What this means is that the normal roar at the dinner table is similar to sitting next to a running dishwasher. It is loud. It is noisy. There is a lot of clanking and crowing. You walk away from the table with a sore throat and question whether you had a conversation.

One on one the conversations are much easier. There is far less chaos and confusion and as I mentioned they really are pretty together.

Part of my stress is this fear that they are going to die, no the knowledge that they are going to die and that one day I will not have any grandparents left, just their memories. It is not how I want to live so I focus on the present, but I admit that sometimes it can be hard not to worry.

I am trying hard to make sure that they tell me their stories, my favorites and things that they never shared with me before. I want to be able to tell those stories too. I won’t be able to argue as my grandfathers do about the best place to get a hot dog in Chicago, in part because they speak about places they ate at in their 20s.

I probably missed out on my opportunity to explore some of the bars in New Orleans that my grandfather used to hit in the 30’s too, but such is life.

At a later date I plan on spending some more time writing my thoughts about my grandparents in more detail and certainly in a more polished manner. But for now let me say that even though things can be stressful I wouldn’t have it any other way.

Dave covers the value of a Yeshiva education in a real life setting. Miriam discusses a different sort of Thanksgiving and BeFrank writes about real life experiences of a different sort.

Gail offers a Thanksgiving picture and Seraphic Secret continues their love story. More to come around the blogosphere or my world later.

I could use my own thought bouncer. But I wouldn’t classify myself as being scatterbrained.

“When you forget a face or can’t find your car keys, it’s not because your brain is out of storage space. You just aren’t filtering out other thoughts well enough, a new study finds.

The research contradicts a popular notion that memory capacity is solely dependent on how much information you can cram into your noggin.

Rather, it shows that if you can disregard some of what you see, you’ll do a better job remembering the visual input you deem important.

Ignore this

Researchers measured brainwaves as objects popped into the minds of the test subjects, who watched colored rectangles appear on a computer screen. In one experiment, researchers told the subjects to focus on two red rectangles and ignore two blue ones.

Without exception, one group had all the rectangles in mind, while another group of individuals — who were already deemed to have high memory capacity — consistently excelled at dismissing the blue rectangles.

“People differed systematically, and dramatically, in their ability to keep irrelevant items out of awareness,” said study leader Edward Vogel of the University of Oregon.

Vogel thinks of this ability to focus as akin to having a thought bouncer in the brain, managing crowd control. The results, detailed in the Nov. 24 issue of the journal Nature, suggest ways to improve memory abilities.

“Being ‘scatterbrained’ is often a symptom of a hectic modern life in which we are often overcommitted, overworked, and inundated with information,” Vogel told LiveScience. “Given such an environment, it would not be surprising if many of our important cognitive control processes become overtaxed and less efficient. Attentional training may be able to improve one’s ability to bounce irrelevant information from awareness.”

Imagine that

Not that the lack of a bouncer is necessarily bad thing.

“There may be advantages to having a lot of seemingly irrelevant information coming to mind,” Vogel points out. “Being a bit scattered tends to be a trait of highly imaginative people.”

But for those who would like to do better at keeping track of their thoughts, help might be on the way. Vogel’s team is working on focusing drills based on the new research.”

My son loves the O-Zone song “Dragostea Din Tei” so I broke down & purchased a copy from iTunes. That Numa Numa guy Gary is to blame for this.

Here is a link to the video that inspired the little guy. He and my daughter love dancing to this.

I hesitated before I began writing this post. Too many cliches and too many others writing trite comments about how thankful they are for this and that. In the end I decided to do so because I have much to be thankful for.

I am thankful for having three grandparents, for my parents, children and family. I am thankful for opportunity, for dreams that have been fulfilled and for those that will be. I am thankful for summer days, for lazy days at the beach, for friends I love and who love me. I am grateful for having the good fortune and luck to be born in such an amazing time and place.

I am thankful for knowing what it is to love with all of my heart, for knowing unbounded passion and unbridled lust. I am thankful for being exposed to beautiful music, for the sun and the moon and for endless blue skies. I am thankful for life.

Happy Thanksgiving- may it be filled with warmth and love for all of us.