Carrying On

The Missy Purse is dead. Long live the Missy Purse.

In all honesty, this was not a surprise. Our developmentally disabled ward Missy tends to pack her ever-present purses to the breaking point – and then about three trailer-loads beyond it. A black hole attracts less mass than a Missy Purse. Soldiers have traveled with smaller loadouts on campaign. In fact, since Missy stands under five feet tall, and weighs less than 100 pounds, you could make an argument as to whether the purse carries her.

Mind you, Heather and I stay vigilant. We’ll periodically smuggle the purse out of sight – which is a little like hiding an elephant under a windbreaker – and cast off some of the detritus. But no matter how many times we revisit it, its contents always seem to regenerate, including:

  • Seven weeks worth of bowling scores, folded until they resemble origami.
  • Three Hot Wheels cars, still in their well-handled packaging.
  • Intermingled flash cards from three different decks.
  • $13.72 in loose change.
  • Two Harry Potter winter hats – even in July.
  • A thick stack of bingo cards, secured in a Ziploc bag.
  • The Ark of the Covenant.
  • The missing “dark matter.”
  • A partridge in a pear tree.

Like the TARDIS of Doctor Who fame, Missy’s accessory of choice always seems to be larger on the inside. But even the mightiest purse has limits. Zippers cease to fasten. Stitches start to give. And, inevitably, the shoulder strap will wear through.

Just as inevitably, Missy will refuse to give up on it right away. Sometimes dragged, sometimes hauled, sometimes presented to one of her Official Porters (us) with a curt “Here,” the Missy Purse will be paraded in honor for another day or two, before it is finally allowed a decent burial and replacement.

It’s hard to let go. Even when it’s become too much. Even when it’s become an obvious, uncomfortable burden.

Sound familiar?

Most of us have carried something similar, even if it isn’t a bright red piece of faux leather. Sometimes it’s an old resentment. A toxic relationship. A painful memory that shapes expectations. Or yes, a prized possession that’s become “What’s it in the shop for this week?”

Sometimes we’re not aware of the damage it’s causing. Sometimes we have to be told or made aware. But most of the time, we know darned well that it’s become a burden – but it’s easier to hold on than to let go.

Letting go means unfamiliar territory.

Letting go means figuring out what to do next.

Letting go means admitting we’ve held on too long, to something that no longer rewarded the attention, if indeed it ever did.

There are a million reasons for not making the hard choice. We know the burden well. We’ve learned to live with it. It’s not that bad, really – right?

And all the while, the seams are splitting. And the shoulder is getting sore.

Ultimately, the choice is ours. Friends can help (and welcome help it is). Advice can offer suggestions, empathy can provide comfort and relief. But the hand that loosens the grip has to be our own.

Only then can we make way for something new.

There’s a new Missy Purse now. Black, this time – a rare choice for her – and rather snazzy. Yes, it’s already accumulating stuff of its own. But it’s more manageable, more comfortable, more useful. And when its time comes in turn, maybe it’ll be a little easier to make the separation.

Maybe.

After all, it’s all a matter of purse-ception.

A Clear-Cut Situation

The face in the mirror keeps catching me by surprise.

“Hey, Scott! You … ” a co-worker called in the parking lot, patting his own chin.

“Yeah, I did.”

It’s the bare-faced truth: for the first time since early 2013, the beard is completely gone. Deforested. Clear-cut. Shaven.

The facial fur left for the same reason it came – to secure a part. When I first transformed into my more hirsute self (joking that I had hit my mid-life crisis), it was to play an Arthurian knight in “Camelot.” This time, an internal city spot was being created that needed a Sherlock Holmes type, and while Sherlock is known for his abundance of brains, there’s rarely been an abundance of hair to go with it. So, out came the razor.

The stage is funny that way. In a similar situation, to play the spear-bald agent Swifty Lazar, a friend erased a beard that had been in place for better than 40 years. We had performers in the cast that were younger than the exorcised adornment was.

It was a peculiar transformation then. It feels equally strange now.

I’m not entirely sure why, to be honest. After all, these last few years have held a lifetime’s worth of changes. Four years ago, my wife Heather and I began to take care of Missy, her physically and mentally disabled aunt. One year ago, I left newspapers (aside from this column) to do PR and pursue some writing of my own. Five months ago, Heather was diagnosed with multiple sclerosis, prompting still more changes in response.

Compared to all that, what does a scraped face matter? Sure, it feels a bit cooler, maybe looks a bit younger. But set against everything else, is the re-summoning of a bygone visage so much?

Then again, maybe that’s it. With so much having changed, it seems … peculiar to look like I did before it all happened. It’s almost like turning back the clock, stepping back to an earlier time.

Silly, of course. You can’t undo change with a razor.

And yet … maybe it’s not a bad thing to have a symbolic reset.

Anyone who’s ever been a caregiver of any kind knows this: fatigue is real and rarely acknowledged. When you put much of your energy into keeping another person going for one more day, the last thing you want to do is worry anyone by revealing how low your own tank is. Sure, you know the caregiver has to be cared for, too, but that’s an intellectual knowledge rather than a visceral one, sort of like how one might have read about bears in the mountains without having any idea what to do when Smoky visits your campsite and rips open your car trunk.

And so, a level of background tired sets in. A level of tunnel vision, too, where you focus on taking care of what needs doing now, with the rest stored in a mental attic for later, if it isn’t just left behind as discarded baggage.

It’s easy to fall into cycles. Habits. Patterns.

Breaking that pattern, even in a small way, helps.

Suddenly, the world looks a little different. You have to come up for air, to pay attention, to see what else might have changed when you weren’t looking. It can be re-energizing, snapping you to attention like a glass of cold water to the face.

Come to think of it, that’s one reason I do theatre in the first place. The chance to step outside myself for a while, to be someone new and, in doing so, get a second wind for who I already am.

The stark state may not last. I do like the beard. So do Heather and Missy. (Actually, Heather likes any state that isn’t the in-between stubble.) But for now, with a few swipes of a Gillette, Mr. Holmes may have solved yet another situation.
Even if it does mean taking it on the chin.

Bringing the Year to Book

With the exception of the Muppet version, my Mom has never really liked “The Twelve Days of Christmas.”

It makes sense. Musically, it’s the holiday equivalent of “99 Bottles of Beer on the Wall.” Logistically, it strikes a little too close to home for anyone who has to keep a house clean during the holidays and is beginning to feel run over by 10 lords a-leaping, nine ladies dancing and all the assorted livestock, with the five golden rings having been accidentally thrown out with the wrapping paper long ago.

And personally, I always felt that I got the better deal anyway. Every Christmas, instead of having to feed and house 50 people and 23 birds that “my true love” wished on me, I could sit down and take hold of the world.

Or at least, of the World Almanac.

Every year, it sat like a gift-wrapped brick at the foot of the tree: the new World Almanac, the book that proved the World Wide Web would have an audience long before the first dancing cat ever hit a computer screen. I plundered that volume for nations and flags of the world, for county-by-county presidential results, for the true names of celebrities and the weirdest facts to hit the headlines. About the only thing it was missing was a random image of Rick Astley on page 47 singing “Never Gonna Give You Up.”

In a family where knowledge of odd and random facts was a given – a friend of mine once called dinner at our house “The Rochat Family Jeopardy Hour” – this was one of the vital grounding points, and mighty cool reading besides. Looking back, it was also a pretty good way to meet the New Year, getting a quick reminder of the year just past before stepping out into uncertain territory.

That’s an important function of New Year’s Day. Maybe even the only one.

When you think about it, New Year’s is a pretty odd holiday. Granted, all holidays are pretty odd. These are the times when we set aside a day to begging for chocolate in masks, or eating candy out of socks, or painting food and hiding it in the back yard for our kids to find (or, more often, for our dogs to discover, snarf and get sick on). Compared to this, a holiday to declare “Hey, we used up another calendar!” almost seems pretty normal.

Still, you wonder. It’s a birthday celebration for no one in particular, a chance to go wild over leaving the festivities of December for the bleakness of January. And it’s not like most of us have a choice in the matter. It’s a little like popping corks and playing music to celebrate going to the grocery store; the journey is going to happen, with or without the Auld Lang Syne.

Its sole purpose is to be a stopping point. A crossroads.

And maybe that’s enough.

It’s easy to get immersed in life, or at least in existence. When I was a kid, the Talking Heads had a hit with “Once in a Lifetime,” which hit a bit close to home for many people:

“And you may find yourself living in a shotgun shack,

And you may find yourself in another part of the world,

And you may find yourself behind the wheel of a large automobile,

And you may find yourself in a beautiful house, with a beautiful wife,

And you may ask yourself “Well … how did I get here?”

This is the “how” – the chance to break the surface of the water and understand the surroundings before diving back in. And that current moves fast.

At this time last year, I was still a full-time newspaper reporter.

At this time last year, I hadn’t yet gained my niece Emma or lost my Grandma Elsie.

At this time last year, we were still getting used to a Clydesdale of a dog named Blake. Still flinching at the sound of a rainstorm and the flood-filled memories it created. Still wondering if anything could stop the Broncos on their way to the Super Bowl.

Still wondering what lay ahead.

That’s a book I haven’t gotten to read yet. But I’m looking forward to the next pages. After all, it’s been a pretty exciting story so far.

Friends and readers, may 2015 be everything you asked for and a few things you didn’t.

Maybe even including the partridge in a pear tree.

Big Blake

It might be a rustle coming from the kitchen.

“Blake!”

Or a person knocked off balance by a loving charge and jump.

“Blake!”

Or even just a moment when everyone realizes it’s been too quiet for too long.

“Blake?”

Take whatever evidence you prefer. The conclusion is the same: there’s a lot more canine in the Rochat household than there used to be.

As regular readers know, Heather and I have kept a one-dog household for quite some time. But now, Duchess the Wonder Dog, the shyest lab-border collie mix in the universe, has company. Bounding, exuberant, seriously clumsy company.

I usually tell people that Blake is part Labrador and part Clydesdale. He belongs to my sister-in-law Jaimee, who has a soft spot for black dogs that are big on muscle and short on coordination. When she stayed with us over Christmas, Blake stayed, too.

And when she left after Christmas, Blake left, too … but not for long. A few days later, we had a boarding request on our hands.

With his people moving into a new place and shifting to a new schedule, it seems Big Blake was having big trouble adjusting. And like many a big guy in a confusing situation, Blake began singing the blues. I’m told the concerts were quite moving … and quite audible to the new neighbors.

So he wound up boarding with us. Just for a while, until things stabilize and Jaimee can help bring the big lug into his new home a little more easily.

And, like all parents, we’ve found you can’t judge the new child by the old one.

Duchess, when you return home, will scamper and smile and sometimes bark. Blake will run up and slam you like the front four of the Denver Broncos.

Duchess will give “cookie eyes” when you have food nearby. Blake will reach out and sample unguarded plates … on high countertops.

Duchess will bark to warn you of a stranger. Blake will bark to warn the stranger.

Duchess often keeps her distance until someone is close family. Blake will park on your feet and be ready for love.

And the two together … hoo, boy. The day they joined forces to break into Blake’s food bin will forever live in family legend, as well as in the X-rays of Blake’s massively distended stomach.

If it sounds like I’m teasing Blake … well, yeah, a little. But you do that with family, even with dogs-in-law.

Really, it’s been a learning experience. And that’s the best part.

It happens with any new arrival: a spouse, a child, a pet, a roommate. Half your time is spent learning the new person, but the other half is spent learning yourself. You start to see yourself in the other person’s eyes, become aware of absent-minded habits, maybe even start to trim your behavior to better suit your teammate.

In that learning, through it, love grows.

So yes, we’ve surrendered a little more space on the bed. (OK, more than a little – Clydesdale, remember?) But we’ve gained so much. More life and laughter, more warmth and affection, more company in quiet weekends and late nights.

It’s going to be hard when the time comes for him to go back with Jaimee. I don’t deny it. But she needs her stumbling klutz, too, and I won’t ever be the one to say no.

Besides, I doubt anyone would hear me over the thundering gallop, anyway.

“Blake!”

Good boy.