The Burden Of Aging

Most people think being over 65 years of age signals old age. But It's not a magical age for old age to appear. Some people are old at 35, some not until 75 years of age and so on. I think there is a combination of attitude, mental decline and physical decline that determines aging. Every thing in life becomes old and functions more poorly as a result of that decline. But humans are the only species that deny some or all of their old age related decline. Just think of cars and you'll see that always happens to us. Immortality is only in silly science fiction novels or films. My own physical being is about ready for the graveyard.

Anyway, I have been thinking about my own old age a little, which I believe started to appear obvious a couple of years ago when I began to have illnesses and see physical and mental decline. It happened instantly to me! Wow! I now understand why "old people" behave the way they do. Alas! I shall give you a few of my own old age onsets so you can live in fear of the same happening to you. (Haha Old people like to frighten young and old ones).

The first thing that happened to me was that sleep became dear, because when old one never really sleeps deeply enough to not be tired. The "he's asleep in the chair again" remarks become more frequent as the person snores at 1 pm while reading or watching TV in a favored chair. Ironically, we oldsters swear those chair naps are the best sleep we get every day. So I say, let us sleep without making us feel guilty about it. I sleep better in a chair or on the sofa than in a bed. In fact, some nights that's how I sleep. There are many other old timers who sleep like that.

Another sign of old age is those doctor's visits. Old people go to the doctor a lot, of their own volition and because medical offices summon them to show up (they don't want us to die in the chair before they bill us for office visits, tests and medications we don't really need). These days I get plenty of snail and E mail requests for medical services. Those "you have been selected for a free hearing test" letters, for example, drive me crazy because my hearing is perfect. Why do they assume every oldie is deaf?

Among the other "he needs this because he is old" services I don't want or need but get constantly are; medic alert bracelets with buzzers to summon help for when "you fall and can't get up"; ED prescriptions; stair elevators for riding instead of walking the stairway; motorized carts to ride instead of walking normally; dating sites for oldies (we old men still want hot young chicks....it's part of our mental decline to think so); Alzheimer and Dementia test referral kits; anti aging wrinkle creams and pills that promise a return to youth; funeral insurance ads (when I die it's not a problem for me for paying for burial. I'll be too dead to worry then);  reverse mortgages, investment accounts and every financial gimmick used to separate oldies from their money because....well...we are old and senile and will never notice anyway.

I better stop ranting about this. I am old and may have a heart attack if I continue. Hmmm maybe I should get one of those medic alert bracelets in case that happens.