2014-605-E Arts - DooR to DooR of UNC Health Care for 2014 Arts Grant Agreement $1,500

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0 0 c Cn cam' M m It will be easier as my parents get older.Already they are We'd tried to explain the internet to him,to no avail. In his 0 more fragile—my father's wisps growing thinner and grayer each lifetime, oh how the news reports had changed. Now I see shades of o year, my mother's swaying, uneasy gait. When they are very old, I my grandfather appearing in his son, my father.The scotch comes o will no longer be able to feel angry—then they'll be beautiful china earlier and earlier in the day.The Times is a major topic of co dolls, more artifact than human, and like a plant or a painting, discussion. Listening to others has decreased as a priority. W they'll need just the right amount of water, humidity, and adoration o Sometimes I am told I am childlike, with a sense of wonder to stay alive, which they will do until they don't. at the world that few adults hold onto. I take this as a compliment, o Those days are a long way off yet, at least by actuarial even though I know from some it's an insult.What's so great about W calculations,the ones that don't show the sudden stroke,the being an adult? I'm still not sure, not entirely convinced,though I abnormal cell tissue. I can enjoy the paradise of their late middle enjoy the ability to eat pancakes for dinner if I so choose, not that I N co age for a time longer—the golden days where they secretly wonder really do. ° why I haven't borne them any grandchildren or if I'll ever be o professionally successful (by their standards). Are my parents old?Am I? My father is very focused on his o mortality, which feels preliminary,given that he's only 68 and his ° My bliss at everyday life does not strike them as a success— own father lived past 90. My father is interested in the end. He is they call asking for the news report and I oblige: meals eaten, tallying events, making sums,trying to measure an immeasurable friends seen, a barometer reading of work and home. But news thing. reports omit so much—yesterday morning, I drank my tea and Who can blame him?We all live until we die.To him,this watched a rabbit eat his breakfast,the quiet cool calm as green leaf seems terrible.To me, an utter gift. after green leaf disappeared into his mouth. He seemed happy. I felt happy. How does one convey such a thing in a news report? On September 11th, my 85 year old grandfather was mission --Julia Green control—he called all of us in NYC and DC to verify that we were OK. When I spoke to him, safe in my dorm room in Upper Manhattan, reading Tess of the D'Urbervilles when I tired of the news, I told him about something I'd read online about the attack. "In the Times," I said. "Impossible," he said. "The Times doesn't come out until tomorrow."