I'm losing it! Big surprise, huh?

February 21, 2026|Not Sooner forgotten, Spiritual Sidelights

Not Sooner forgotten ...

    I'm losing it. But you already knew that. No surprise here, right?

     Ah, but in an ever increasing number of ways, my body is failing me. That's why I haven't been active much lately as the Senior Sooner.

    First, I'm going blind. Then my right hand now is refusing to act as usual. Umm, an eyelid increasingly droops, and my mouth now often forms a snear even when the subject of saxeT isn't brought up.

     What's more, the right side of my body is suddenly envious of the left side's unruly restless leg syndrome and is emulating it at night despite taking all my meds. Harrumph!

     Then there are nights when neuropathy makes a foot feel like it's being eaten off by a lion. Meanwhile black mold regularly continues to try to snuff out my life, causing my voice to be hoarse much of the time. Now I don't even have a voice for radio, let alone a face.

     Despite it all, God has me at peace. As for going blind, well, I should have lost my sight more than 60 years ago. As a 7th grader I was diagnosed with a condition that would leave me blind before high school graduation.

     But my mother's optometrist just happened to be part of an adult study to bring contacts to market. The new glass lenses were very fragile and expensive, and I was thought way too young to handle them properly -- but the doc somehow pulled strings and got me involved. Sure enough, the hard surface of the contacts stopped the deformity and saved my sight.

     As for my rebellious hand, well, I'm now coping off what I learned from my late wife. Ellen, my soulmate of 49 years was one of the last babies to get polio and literally ran out of her braces ala Forest Gump. I was married to her for nearly half a century before I found out her left hand was pretty much ornamental. It simply held things, placed there by her right hand. And she did that so well I was unable to detect it. 

     Now it's my turn to use my uncooperative hand as a placeholder and carry on. And I feel I am on decades of borrowed time about my vision, which was sooo bad and undetected in grade school that I was labeled retarded and treated as such for two years. These days people call me a lot of things, but not necessarily retarded.

     My sight sadly can change from moment to moment, befuddling even the famed Dean McGee Eye Institute. I would need hundreds of glasses and spend much of my time trying them on to find a pair that works for that moment. 

     Or brain surgery. But if I had a brain, I'd already have taken it out to play with it. Besides, opening up such a can of worms at my age isn't advisable.

     Doesn't matter! I have seen enough! Too much, in fact, of this evil world. I'm blessed at age 79 more than almost all people living at my senior complex, many of whom are in walkers or carts. Or worse: a fall away from nursing homes, never to return.

     Is there yet another football season for this aging Senior Sooner? Time will tell. But if blessed with another autumn, I will be embracing a new role, since OU fans don't need my freebies to bribe them to CHEER like a champion and provide Oklahoma with a decided home field advantage in the rugged SEC. That, like I've previously posted, is mission accomplished for me.

     Therefore my focus now should be on organizing some of us geezers into a group at www.seniorsooner.com before I fade any further away. Many of you up in years have exceptional experiences to relate, having brushed shoulders with OU legends.

     So is there anyone among Sooner Nation who wants to help form such a group of us seniors? Please email me at revrusty@gmail.com. I gladly will provide a membership certificate, suitable for framing, and a badge for each new member, much like I did in recent years at Coaches Corner. I'm just not sure what's the next step to take in getting a group going. Let me know what you think.