I Like Me

[Ieuan ab Arthur]

Hi All:

The other day a young person asked me how I felt about being old. I was taken aback, for I do not think of myself as old. Upon seeing my reaction, she was immediately embarrassed, but I explained that it was an interesting question, and I would ponder it, and let her know.

Old Age, I decided, is a gift.

I would never trade my amazing friends, my wonderful life, my loving family for less gray hair or a flatter belly.

As I've aged, I've become more kind to myself, and less critical of myself. I've become my own friend. I don't chide myself for eating that extra cookie, or for not making my bed, or for buying that silly cement gecko that I didn't need, but looks so avante garde on my patio. I am entitled to overeat, to be messy, to be extravagant. I have seen too many dear friends leave this world too soon; before they understood the great freedom that comes with aging.I am now, probably for the first time in my life, the person I have always wanted to be.

Oh, not my body! I sometime despair over my body, the wrinkles, the baggy eyes, and the sagging butt. And often I am taken aback by that old person that lives in my mirror (who looks like my mother!), but I don't agonize over those things for long.

Whose business is it if I choose to read or play on the computer until 4 a.m, and sleep until noon?

They, too, will get old.

I know I am sometimes forgetful. But there again, some of life is just as well forgotten. And I eventually remember the important things.

I will dance with myself to those wonderful tunes of the 50's,and if I, at the same time, wish to weep over a lost love ... I will.

I will walk the beach in a swim suit that is stretched over a bulging body, and will dive into the waves with abandon if I choose to, despite the pitying glances from the jet set.

I am so blessed to have lived long enough to have my hair turn gray, and to have my youthful laughs be forever etched into deep grooves on my face. So many have never laughed, and so many have died before their hair could turn silver. I can say it and mean it.

Sure, over the years my heart has been broken. How can your heart not break when you lose a loved one, or when a child suffers, or even when a beloved pet gets hit by a car? But broken hearts are what give us strength and understanding and compassion. A heart never broken is pristine and sterile and will never know the joy of being imperfect.

As you get older, it is easier to be positive. You care less about what other people think. I don't question myself anymore I've even earned the right to be wrong.

Today, I wish you a day of ordinary miracles.

So, to answer your question, I like being old It has set me free. I like the person I have become. I am not going to live forever, but while I am still here, I will not waste time lamenting what could have been, or worrying about what will be. And I shall eat dessert every single day.

Ta ra 'wan,

Ieuan "46 isn't all that old" ab Arthur

[BluesScale]

Is that Glurge?

I find myself agreeing with much of it but then I have seen a summer or two

Blues

[MapleLeaf]

Technically it is not glurge because it lacks a few components. The sappiness is there, but:

a) no Christian message
b) no instructions to forward it a billion times or else...

As you get older, it is easier to be positive. You care less about what other people think. I don't question myself anymore I've even earned the right to be wrong.

No one has "earned the right to be wrong". You don't think I'm gonna be mad about your sexism, racism, gay bashing, etc. just because you're 75? Arguing might be harder, and prove futile ('cause you're set in your ways and all) but you are still in error and I will still point it out.

[Dropbear]

So, to answer your question, I like being old It has set me free.

Rubbish and utter nonsense. The attitude to life described could be called 'emotional maturity' and old age is neither a necessary, nor a sufficient condition for emotional maturity.

The fact that the author ascribes her emotional maturity to her physical age indicates she still has some growing up to do.

This sort of nonsense always makes me livid because it is implicitly so dismissive of anybody younger.

Dropbear

[vison]

Originally Posted by Dropbear

Rubbish and utter nonsense. The attitude to life described could be called 'emotional maturity' and old age is neither a necessary, nor a sufficient condition for emotional maturity.

The fact that the author ascribes her emotional maturity to her physical age indicates she still has some growing up to do.

This sort of nonsense always makes me livid because it is implicitly so dismissive of anybody younger.

Dropbear

Wait till you're my age, and you'll see why. Unless a person is almost terminally stupid and closeminded, you get some wisdom with age. Patience with uppity youngsters being one kind of wisdom!

Seriously, Dropbear, you are right. Age is no guarantee of wisdom. But I can't, offhand, think of anyone under the age of 60 that I know personally who could write anything like the post that you find so offensive. Perhaps you are that wise, that mature? Some people take longer, and some never get there at all.

I tend to agree with much of what the opening post had to say, since I'm there already, at the age of 62.7 years. Even 5 years ago I would have been dismissive of it. Now I guess I know better. This is, as they say, where the rubber hits the road. You are what you made yourself, when you get to my age. It's not fun, a lot of it is pretty hard, but then, I consider the alternative.

As for "being wrong", I must say I am smiling with clenched teeth over the quick assumptions demonstrated by Maple Leaf in this quote: "No one has "earned the right to be wrong". You don't think I'm gonna be mad about your sexism, racism, gay bashing, etc. just because you're 75?"

Now, it IS possible that in the next 12 years I might turn into a sexist, racist gay basher, but I'm not one now. Moreover, my mother, who is 82, is not a sexist, racist, gay basher and never was. Neither was my dad. I don't actually know any OLD people who are, the people I know that are sexist, racist, gay bashers are all in their 30's and 40's. Maybe they'll smarten up, eh?

[Dropbear]

Originally Posted by vison

As for "being wrong", I must say I am smiling with clenched teeth over the quick assumptions demonstrated by Maple Leaf in this quote: "No one has "earned the right to be wrong". You don't think I'm gonna be mad about your sexism, racism, gay bashing, etc. just because you're 75?"

I read what Mapleleaf wrote as simply that old people do not get the right to be sexist racist etc not that old people necessarily hold those opinions.

And I totally agree being old does not give you any special privileges- it proves nothing about you, and should it be used to justify a right to anything other than normal courtesy.

Dropbear

[Artemis]

I interpreted it the same way. It's not that all old people subscribe to racism/sexism/bad isms. It's just that old people, like everyone else, can be wrong. Just because you're older, doesn't make you infallible. We all make mistakes.

Though the old person who penned this glurge may just have been saying that to cover up his/her terrible grammar:

I don't question myself anymore I've even earned the right to be wrong.