Over the hill, senior citizen, golden ager, primetimer--or just past the sell-by date. Our society loves euphemisms, especially for less than desirable statuses. Like dead, for example: expired, passed away, or deceased (I prefer "life challenged" myself).
I call myself old most of the time. Since that is one of those less desirable statuses, it opens the door for the other person to say "My goodness, you're not old!". Or, "Your about my age, aren't you?" Which goes over very well with me if that person is about 20 years younger. I accept flattery with no shame. But, honestly, why should there be anything negative about aging? Yes, it's corny, but what's the alternative?
There are negative qualities we possess that we can change: weight, hair color, behavior, and many aspects of our health. I would have said gender, but that is also changeable now. What we still can't change is race (or those characteristics that we call "race") and the aging processes of our body. Other than is fantasy or science fiction, we are going to age. How we age is another matter. Even that is at least partly genetics as well. I know a 100-year old man right here in town who looks, acts and moves like someone 40 or 50 years younger.
Interviewers always ask the 100+ group "What is your secret to living such a long life?" I'm convinced no such thing exists. The only commonalities researchers have found is the general tendency to maintain social ties and be physically and mentally active. Not quite enough to go on for, say, a prescription for eternal life.
But--and it's a big one--there is such wide variation in how people age, you might as well give it a shot, right? I think most people are like me and really don't consciously think of themselves as old (at least until I look in the magnifying mirror). The numbers seem meaningless. I remember things that happened 30, 40, 50 years ago and it really doesn't register. Sometimes I stand outside myself and try to imagine how people perceive me. As an old doddering fool? As someone who has to be put up with? I think I expected a tad more respect for my age and wisdom. Sometimes people don't let me carry heavy objects, or insist that I sit. I can do without that. I refuse to look decrepit.
In the meantime I plan to cultivate my aging persona as one of wisdom and power. I will enjoy all the senior discounts I am offered. In my own head, it's like a game--ha, ha, they don't know who I really am. Who I really am is the same person I have always been.
I call myself old most of the time. Since that is one of those less desirable statuses, it opens the door for the other person to say "My goodness, you're not old!". Or, "Your about my age, aren't you?" Which goes over very well with me if that person is about 20 years younger. I accept flattery with no shame. But, honestly, why should there be anything negative about aging? Yes, it's corny, but what's the alternative?
There are negative qualities we possess that we can change: weight, hair color, behavior, and many aspects of our health. I would have said gender, but that is also changeable now. What we still can't change is race (or those characteristics that we call "race") and the aging processes of our body. Other than is fantasy or science fiction, we are going to age. How we age is another matter. Even that is at least partly genetics as well. I know a 100-year old man right here in town who looks, acts and moves like someone 40 or 50 years younger.
Interviewers always ask the 100+ group "What is your secret to living such a long life?" I'm convinced no such thing exists. The only commonalities researchers have found is the general tendency to maintain social ties and be physically and mentally active. Not quite enough to go on for, say, a prescription for eternal life.
But--and it's a big one--there is such wide variation in how people age, you might as well give it a shot, right? I think most people are like me and really don't consciously think of themselves as old (at least until I look in the magnifying mirror). The numbers seem meaningless. I remember things that happened 30, 40, 50 years ago and it really doesn't register. Sometimes I stand outside myself and try to imagine how people perceive me. As an old doddering fool? As someone who has to be put up with? I think I expected a tad more respect for my age and wisdom. Sometimes people don't let me carry heavy objects, or insist that I sit. I can do without that. I refuse to look decrepit.
In the meantime I plan to cultivate my aging persona as one of wisdom and power. I will enjoy all the senior discounts I am offered. In my own head, it's like a game--ha, ha, they don't know who I really am. Who I really am is the same person I have always been.
Hello Barbara,
ReplyDeleteThis is my theory on age. I believe we wouldn't feel so bad about aging, which if you have entered this world you are aging, if our society wasn't hell bent on trying to make us feel bad about it. I tell people you don't get a brain until you hit 50. There are a few exceptions in each direction, but for the most part it stands the test. I personally like the older version of me. As I have aged, I'm sixty, I have grown a backbone and gained wisdom, which I believe comes from God. You mentioned the image in the mirror (and no one looks good in the magnifying mirror); I remember my grandmother saying, at 80+ years, inside I feel the same as I did when I was 17. I tell people about this when I hear them make the same comment. There is a very good reason for that. Our body is a house of flesh and it begins aging when we are born. I love the comments about our aging population, referring to the senior group. Hello, if you are alive you are aging. However, the person inside. The real us is immortal. That part of us feels no age the numbers are meaningless. We are body, soul and spirit. The body will go back to the ground the soul and spirit will live on. And just for the record, I have never looked at older people as being "old people". Not as a teenager, not as a 20, 30 or 40 something. I see people as people. I don't see gender, race or age when I am talking to people. They are people. http://thegeorgiafarmerswife.wordpress.com/