ANTIQUATED EXISTENCE

  

Seize the day

Have fun and play

Don’t waste your time

To sit and whine

Each second is great

So enjoy what you own

You’ll see how you’ve grown

The stages of life, at the risk of simplicity, can be described as youth, adulthood, middle years, senior years and twilight years. Let’s just focus on the stages in which most of us are living today, our senior and twilight years. There is no doubt that we don’t see ourselves as antiquated, but some people who have not reached these stages of life may see us as antiquated. They may see us as obsolete, old fashioned, passé,  living in the past and still tied to thoughts of days long ago. These ideas arise when some of us are observed to move with a walker or a cane, speak slowly, lean on walls, struggle to keep our balance or don’t hear well. 

Yes, it’s true that some of us don’t have the agility we had in our younger years and those who have these antiquated perceptions of us feel a sort of compassion for what appear as our infirmities. Sometimes, they reach out to help us in ways that tend to infantilize us, that is, they treat us as if we are a child denying us our maturity and respect for the experience we have earned. 

Yes, it is important to understand that there are people younger who sincerely venerate age but let’s be sure what is respected is what we may have accomplished or yet may be achieving. I am confident that when someone helps us get up from a chair, it is an act of courtesy and not to be looked upon as someone showing pity for our limitation. But, in the final analysis, it is important to understand that seniors really want to maintain their independence as much and as long as possible.

Fortunately, most seniors intellectually have retained their mental faculties and remain emotionally young, alert, think clearly and still contribute to society. We can enjoy literature, the arts, good food, music and we share our wisdom with the young.