Monday, September 19, 2022

Growing Old Does Have Its Benefits I Tell Myself

After 70-plus years I've grudgingly accepted the fact that I'm old. That doesn't mean I'm going to go quietly into the night and stop living.

Sometimes I cringe when I recall my youth when the thought of getting older meant opening the doors to the kingdom. A ten-year old me grousing "When I grow up, I'll do whatever I want."

Add six decades and now my views on growing older have changed. In private moments I fondly remember the stupidity of youth. What George Bernard Shaw once said is so true, "Youth is a wonderful thing. What a crime to waste it on children."

Advantages to being a (sigh) Senior

1. You quit worrying about how you look because you just don't care what people think after all of those years. I can walk around in the supermarket wearing slippers and stripped shorts with my t-shirt inside out and not feel uncomfortable.

2. Around 65 years old you become an official senior and the corporate world offers you extra discounts on products, services, and entertainment. 

3. People expect you to be grouchy and I try not to disappoint them.

4. Sometimes people give up their seats so that seniors can sit. However, we can't always count on it like in past decades.

5. Age brings experience and wisdom. Up to a point. I've seen plenty of dumb seniors - think MAGA cult core - that live in a bubble of ignorance and lies.

6. Retired seniors don't have bosses telling them what to do and when they can take a vacation.

On Growing Old

Abraham Lincoln - "In the end, it's not the years in your life that count. It's the life in your years."

Henry Ford - "Anyone who stops learning is old, whether at twenty or eighty. Anyone who keeps learning stays young."

Henry David Thoreau - "None are so old as those who have outlived enthusiasm."

Walt Disney - Growing old is mandatory but growing up is optional." 

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As it stands, I should point out that being 71 years-old has changed my social classification from just a plain old senior to a Septuagenarian... which (truth be told) sounds like some kind of dinosaur!

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