PLAY GUITAR?

WHERE MUSIC THERAPY AND PHYSICAL THERAPY HOOK-UP

Spend time with someone afflicted with a movement disease and you’ll get this:

Fine motor skills go first.

Any baby boomer know this, too.

You don’t run faster and jump higher with every birthday.

PF Flyer might have made the promise, but you’ve grown out of those shoes.

Still, you know an active live is the good life, especially if you’re chased by the ‘use it or lose it’ threat.

Not to bring bad news, but whether you lose it or not, you’re still going to lose it. The plan is losing it later, not sooner.

Ideally you’ll have the greatest day in the best month of a dream-like year, go to sleep with the one you love, then die.

Who expects that? Why not you? Here’s how:

For everything you don’t do as well as you used to, find a substitute, something new to improve on. Do that and the frustration you see in others grinding their teeth over aging will skip you.

Can’t run a 10K road race, but you can hike an old growth forest trail?

Can’t stay up and party like a rock star, but you can play some guitar?

Take this guitar, please.

The feeling you put into the time you spend defines who you are. Let anger over age-related failure haunt your hours, or enjoy the sound of a sliding blues turn-around in the Key of E.

Train your fingers to dance across the frets the way you ran a six minute mile. Follow the rhythm of your foot, breath, and heartbeat.

Play your guitar soft and precise in the living room, or slam power chords and shake the garage dust.

It’s good to plan since you’ll be around longer than you expect. Start playing guitar now and you’ll be okay in a few years.

Play your songs and if someone says, “that sounds bad,” tell them you’ve been a lot worse.

You can do this? Or you’d rather find someone to blame for your empty years.

Time to fill ’em up here in Portland.