A call for refinement. Not retirement.

Not retirement.  Refinement. Ok, we had to invent a new category, but now we own it. Real nice to be here, too, in refinement, no matter what your age.  But especially if you’re my age.  Which is older than you.
 
Being your elder is a funny thing.  Stop laughing, c’mon, I worked for this chance all my life.  Something I discovered ages ago.  About aging. You’re about to discover it, too.
 
We’re easy to talk to.  No agenda.  Not after anything.  Not selling anything.  Tell you what we think, like it or not.  Don’t like it?  Made my point. Ask any gray hairs on a bench in Market Square or sneaking an extra sample at Costco.  I’ve enjoyed elders all my life.  They give it to you straight up and on the line.
 
We have the stories.  Well, we’ve been collecting them for a while.  And like to tell them.  Some of them are even good.  But you won’t know unless you ask.  Take that back.  We tell them anyhow.  One reason I write plays, I love a captive audience. Buy your ticket and you’re in that seat until it’s over.  I can say anything I want.  And I do.
 
But I want you to come back, so I’m kind of particular how I say it. Which is why I look for great actors to say it for me.
 
Senior moments, priceless.  No, not the kind that make you go back home for something you don’t really need.  I’m talking the moments so precious we collect them.  Remember them.  Share them.  And every one we remember is worth all the ones we forgot.
 
Example.  I was in line at the East Liberty Post Office, when two older parishioners from Mt. Ararat Baptist Church ran into each other.  So he asks her how long she’s lived in the neighborhood, and she’s not about to give away her age, so she says, “Put it this way.  Been around the jug, found the handle.  Couple a times.”
 
You can’t make this stuff up.  It was a senior moment.
 
Refinement?  This city is loaded to the gills with chances to grab some.  For starters, we’re maybe the best regional theater town in America.  Who can top us?  You never run out of choices, when you feel like going out.  So go out and get some.
 
All this is to say, there’s nothing wrong with getting older.  Nothing to be afraid of.  Even though the TV commercials for clapper bathroom lights, electric buggies that wheel you through Target, stair lifts that look like a ride at Kennywood, for Viagra, another kind of lift– the horrors of daytime TV -- can scare the daylights out of anyone.
 
Don’t let it scare you.  Turn off the TV, ride the bus, get out there, have a senior moment by talking to a senior, lose your “to do” list for a while, and get in some refinement.   Then, when you’re my age, if you’re lucky, you’ll never have to retire.
 
Master photographer Annie O’Neill’s compelling project “The Gift of Work,” has captured dozens of people around the world who have been at the same job for 50 years or longer.  All of them share a common trait – passion for what they do in life – a cobbler, a cabbie, a blues singer, a canoe carver, a grave digger – proof that it doesn’t matter what you do.  What matters is this.
 
The Pursuit is the prize.  Not the salary.  Not the window office.  Not winning that new business pitch.  The pursuit. Fall in love with it, and that will decide “…what seizes your imagination, what breaks your heart, and what amazes you with joy and gratitude,” as the great Jesuit Pedro Arrupe said.  Boy, was he ever in refinement.
 
Now, if you want to meet some of this up close, come to the premier of my trilogy, Elder Hostages. You’ll find it sitting right beside you. And after each Sunday matinee, we’ll have a brief talk-back with people like the brilliant painter Robert Qualters, the astounding sculptor Thaddeus Mosley,  turnaround artist Jim Roddey, jazz guru Tony Mowod, classic drummer Roger Humphries, and others who have a spirit for life that just gets more spirited with age.  My bet is, you’ll walk away with a senior moment.
 
The premier of Ray Werner’s trilogy Elder Hostages, directed by Marci Woodruff, opens on Saturday, February 11 and runs to Sunday, February 26 at the new Pittsburgh Playwrights Theater, 937 Liberty. Go to:  pghplaywrights.com/elder.  An exhibit of Annie O’Neill’s “The Gift of Work” will grace the lobby throughout the run, and at lunchtime Tuesdays through Saturdays.  Annieoneillphotography.com.

After a career as a copywriter and founder of an advertising agency (which is now the Mullen Agency), Ray Werner has become a struggling playwright.  Some of the struggle is over with the premier of these plays.  He still keeps his fingers in advertising, and will talk about "The Pursuit," to anyone who will listen.  Preferably over some homemade bread from his wood fired brick oven.

Photograph by Annie O'Neill