Use it or Lose it!

Use it or Lose it was a threat I remember from my teen years. Some time has passed. I may have lost it - I'm not sure; but I'm not using it - at least I don't think I am.

Today a headline in the paper caught my attention. Use it or Lose it was printed in the darkest boldest caps. I nearly ignored it. Surely it had nothing to do with me, but who knows what tomorrow might bring, so I read the smaller print.

The gist of this article maintained that if you don't use your BRAIN, you lose it. Studies show that stretching this organ increases its changes of healthy surival far into the golden years and maybe beyond.

Over the past years I've used mine almost beyond recognition. I was a left-brained computer illiterate. Today, I can design a web page, paint a watercolor that sells and write poetry and prose that is published in places you'd recognize. That feels like a stretch but I'll have to admit there are times when I'm sure I've lost it anyway.

After all this time, I wonder if I misunderstood that ultimatum issued after a movie or roller-skating date. Were those fellas with ciggies rolled up in their t-shirt sleeves and long hair slicked back into duck butts referring to using the brain? I wonder. I would ask them but I'm not sure they'd remember.

Rise the Morning Bird Watercolor by Sue, June 2006. Original available for purchase at Watercolor Gallery