Tag: aging

Musings from an Older Man

As I’ve gotten older, I find that I don’t care that much for other people’s opinions.

As I’ve gotten older, I find that other people really don’t care that much for my opinions either.

As I’ve gotten older, women don’t find me as attractive. When I say older, I meant over “my peak” at the age 5.

As years get longer, my Christmas list grows shorter.

Santa does not deliver my gifts climbing down the chimney; he packages them with my blood pressure medication deliveries.

The major difference between toys when I was young and today is that today’s children need no imagination in playing with them.

Compliments accompanied by the phrase “for a man your age” are brushed by backhand.

My memory is sharp like a tack; literally….

You won’t know what you’ll never know. You’ll never know what you won’t know. (For philosophy majors only.)

I have reached the age when I no longer have to worry about dying “before my time.”

Equanimity

“True equanimity arises when we embrace the flow of life without being swept away by its currents.” – Ram Dass

In memory of two high school classmates who recently died…

As we grow older, we descend like a starship pulling from the gravity of our youthful endeavors, and settle into the “orbit of mortality.”

The sounds of ocean waves lapping along the shore, like hymns from a church organ evoke peace and soulful contemplation.

There is no better sedative than sitting on the couch, cool drink in hand and dozing off to one of my wife’s Hallmark movies.

How I look forward to summer! By July 1, how I look forward to autumn!

My True Confession: I never flirted with a woman I desired. AI version: Desire unspoken, a confession true: I never flirted, yet yearned for you.

Three mindsets of a life long athlete: in youth, WIN; in good health, COMPETE; in old age, PARTICIPATE.

I was surprised to hear of the current writers’ strike in movies and TV. Based on what I view on the screen, I thought their work stoppage began in 1990.

Future historians will equate January 6, 2021 as this era’s Fort Sumter, the start of a new civil war.

Mullings of a Mature Man

Senior citizens are like older cars without a gas gauge. Both have travelled many miles and not sure how much time or travel is left.

As years grow, handshakes, hugs and kisses among friends and family are longer.

Photo by Pixabay

Those who are truly happy, if offered a chance to enter a time machine and go back to relive their lives, would decline and say, “I would not change a thing.”

Emptying contents from my mom’s home of 54 years, I sensed fond memories of my youth following them solemnly from the house to the truck taking them away.

One’s definition of “success’ matures with age. Success becomes not so much in what we have but what we contributed with what we had.

If you still believe in 75% of the things you learned or were told in the first 25% of your life, you haven’t been paying attention.

Senescence Round 7

Regrets I have a few but then again too few to mention…
If I could enter a time machine that could take me back 55 years and with my current knowledge and life experience, I would still repeat 90% of my lifetime decisions and actions if I had the chance to relive them.

What convinces someone of the value of your judgement and advice is not by what you say but by what you have accomplished.

Sanskrit is more decipherable than an angry woman.

Most men pursue the second prettiest woman at a party.

The best parties often involve only two people.

Flirting, like intimate conversation, has become a lost relationship art.

Those who strive to impress the least, impress the most.

Caring what other people think of me is a blessing and a curse.

I’d rather be the underdog than the top dog.

What would cure many ills and problems is a good night’s sleep.

There is no antidote to grief except time. However time does not heal all wounds but masks like a scab to cover the pain.

My mind often creates an illusion that my body understands is just a delusion.

Picture by EAB

Senescence Round 6

For older guys, Pickleball: Exercise = Viagra: Sex

Ukraine: Their legislators are dodging bullets.
USA: Our GOP legislators are dodging ballots.

Hollywood: A slap results in one suffering a 10 year ban from the Academy of Arts and Sciences
Washington: An attempted overthrow of the government results in one being the favorite for the GOP nomination for President in 2024

I am a hoarder of cluttered life experiences and emotional baggage including insults remembered, disappointments, unfulfilled expectations, envies, failures and missed opportunities. Time to declutter…

My most irrational belief is that people should act and think like I do.

Most men should be ending their political careers at age 70 not beginning or renewing it.

Voters are doing a poor job of eliminating politicians whose ages may be less than 70 but so are their IQs.

In their teens and 20s, baby boomers crammed to study for exams and finish class papers. In their 60s and older, baby boomers now cram to complete their bucket list while they are still healthy and active.

In their teens and twenties, baby boomers pulled “all nighters” which was staying up all night to study or finish papers. In their 60s and older, all nighters usually represent the hours between 10 p.m and 7 a.m. where baby boomers try to get a good night sleep.

Who is our Zelinskyy?

We exist in a game of lifelong dodgeball. Life throws a lot of challenges and problems where we have to bob, weave, duck and adjust. However well we dodge what is thrown at us, the last throw always hits us and eliminates us from the game.

Antidotes for anxiety and depression: a warm shower, a long walk, favorite music, and leafing through old family pictures.

I had a conversation with my 95-year-old uncle a week or so ago. He mentioned to me that he never feels angry anymore. He views it as a waste of time and given how short of time he may have left, he has downsized useless emotions and feelings. Anger does seem to be one of the top items that all of us should downsize no matter what our age.

If I had a choice and given the unity and bravery of the people and leadership in Ukraine, would I prefer to identify myself as an American? Or as a Ukrainian?

Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene (R-GA) at Trump’s Save America Rally in Commerce, Georgia tonight: “And you know what? Pete Buttigieg can take his electric vehicles and his bicycles and he and his husband can stay out of our girls’ bathrooms.” The crowd actually applauded this line…

List of women (Trumpunts) who have me reaching on my remote for the Power Off, mute or change channel buttons…
Marjorie Taylor Greene
Lauren Boebert
Ginni Thomas
Laura Ingraham
Jeanne Pirro
Kayleigh McEnany
Maria Bartiromo
Marsha Blackburn
Toni Lahren
Candace Owens
Ann Coulter
Sarah Huckabee Sanders

It’s Your Friends Who Break Your Heart

It’s Your Friends Who Break Your Heart by Jennifer Senior in The Atlantic is a timely article for me. The subtitle of the article suggests that “The older we get, the more we need our friends—and the harder it is to keep them.” I can’t agree more! I might add that it’s not only friends who can break your heart but family too. The pain is indistinguishable.

It is a long article but worth reading. I have listed points of the article that I agree with and are worth sharing…

“You lose friends to marriage, to parenthood, to politics—even when you share the same politics.”

“The unhappy truth of the matter is that it is normal for friendships to fade, even under the best of circumstances. The real aberration is keeping them.”

“You lose friends to success, to failure, to flukish strokes of good or ill luck. One could argue that modern life conspires against friendship, even as it requires the bonds of friendship all the more.”

“Most of withered friendships can be chalked up to this terrible tendency …not to reach out.”

“This is, mind you, how most friendships die, according to the social psychologist Beverley Fehr: not in pyrotechnics, but a quiet, gray dissolve. It’s not that anything happens to either of you; it’s just that things stop happening between you.”

Senescence: Round 5

Sorry Neil Young…but not only love can break your heart. 💔 (Disappointment can)

Even when a singer or musician dies, their music and songs are their cryogenic legacies keeping them alive.

Despite getting much older, the shadow of the young shy boy I once was still walks besides me…

Age I feel when I play pickleball: 35. Age I feel when I stop playing pickleball: 69.

Most people have two versions of their life story. The first version is the highly edited story they wish to communicate to friends, associates and family. The second version is the unedited story they occasionally retrieve and reflect by and for themselves.

As one ages in the party of life, one may feel like an uninvited guest… events and conversation swirl around and not with you as you blend into the tapestry as a monochromatic spectator.

Maybe the best advice for marriage that I have read: “Choose a wife rather by your ear than your eye.” (English proverb)

Photo by Towfiqu barbhuiya from Pexels

What quickened my pulse (1972): thump-thump of bouncing basketball on a court
What quickens my pulse (2022): thwack and pop of pickleball hitting a paddle.

When having to choose between an old movie or TV show that I viewed and really enjoyed or a promising new movie or TV show that I might enjoy, I usually opt for the former.

Stupidity continues to spread faster than omicron in this country. Stupidity offers many variants and there is no proven vaccine, not even a high dose of education.

NFL = WWE
In professional wrestling, Vince McMahon largely directs which wrestler (or entertainer) will “go over” and win. Now we are hearing allegations that owners of pro football teams in Miami and Cleveland have directed their coaches to lose games in order to improve their positions in upcoming drafts. pro wrestling is defined as “entertainment” as the outcomes are scripted and pre-determined. Is pro football different?

If you are a sports bettor, do you worry less about the performance of a team’s Quarterback or focus more on the competitive mindset and financial status of the team owner?

2022 China Winter Olympics Game = 1936 Berlin Summer Olympics Game
These Olympics weren’t so much sports events as propaganda displays for the promotions of Messrs. Hitler and Xi. The screams of repressed Jews and Muslim Uighurs are drowned out by the cheers and applause for the athletes.

Stock market is largely driven by narratives (agree with Professor Bob Shiller) less on fundamentals, data and financial results. For many companies, the role of the CFO has taken a back seat to the Director of Communications and Media.

Observations that I have read and found worthy of sharing…

Having been retired for about three years, I look back on my “career” in various positions as defining a job as an inconvenient interruption between weekends. Phil from Philadelphia (comment on NYT article Public Displays of Resignation: Saying ‘I Quit’ Loud and Proud)

“To keep Trump and his epigones away from high office, it isn’t enough to have the moral high ground. It’s like something Adlai Stevenson supposedly said once when a voter told him that every thinking person was on his side. “I’m afraid that won’t do,” he replied. “I need a majority.” Democracy needs a majority.” (Bret Stephens NYT Covid 3.0, Biden 2.0 and Trump Number …1/10/22)