Tuesday, December 28, 2010

"Old age is no place for sissies." Bette Davis said that.



In Brooklyn it is “old age sucks.”

This is our yearly trip to NY, to see the doctors and “OLD” friends.
It is a concentrated time of checkups, probes, and tests,
We do it once a year, our friends, stretch these visits out over the year.

Everybody we see seems to have something wrong with him or her, including me.
Aches, pains, pills, orthotics in your shoes, hearing aids, increased prescriptions, injections for sugar, prostate exams, gall bladder operations and God knows what else.

It is bad enough we have these things, but we talk about them to each other. It seems to be the main topic of conversation. I really cannot stand it but I find myself doing the same thing. This has to stop, much as I care for all my friends, the last thing I want to know about is the number of pills they take or their gall bladder operation.
I love them but enough is enough, basta, ya, finito, let’s talk about women or fishing or politics, anything.

A friend told me we are like an automobile, we are born like a perfect Mercedes, and over the years it requires servicing. At a certain stage it isn’t a 6,000-mile checkup, it is a lot worse, engine block cracked, needs major work. I figure I am at the million mile checkup, should be able to last another couple of thousand miles if they can figure out what that weird noise is.

OK, now here comes the crazy thing, I just read a report that our happiness and contentedness increases after the age of 50 and continues to go up for the next 20 years or so. It seems we do not worry about success, getting ahead and all the things we anguished about when we were in a developing stage. It sort of makes sense, we are what we are and are relaxed about who we are…a good feeling.

It seems odd to me, at a time when we are seemingly falling apart, we are happier and more contented than any other time in our lives.

It all comes down to a very simple thing; if you have a great mental attitude and are OK with yourself, the physical does not seem to matter much. A few aches and pains are nothing compared to the feeling you have that the rough part is over.

I think being “young” is no place for sissies.

3 comments:

  1. Very well put and very true. But then, if anything happens we say, why didn't he tell me. I think we don't consider these problems any big deal and we don't want anyone to be concerned. I agree that a great attitude makes everything seem no big deal.

    You have to be our age to know and understand this. I agree, being young is no place for "sissies", and being old is no big deal.
    A great philosophy of life.

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  2. The type is too small. I can't read this bog. Make the type bigger. Why don't you write bigger? BIG, LIKE THIS! You know I'm hard of reading.

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  3. From now on I will make it bigger. I understand your problem, since I am hard of writing.

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