Another birthday is looming before me and I have to say it doesn't bother me one bit. Getting old is preferable to dying young because you get to experience more earthly things. I've had my share of health scares but I'm fairly healthy and definitely quite happy. So why worry about age?
Something I never even expected was to be a greatgramma and I'm that twice over. A lot of my friends are, too, and that must be because we're living longer than our ancestors. My own Gramma died at 72 and my mother at 64 so I've surpassed my immediate ancestors by at least 5 years and, hopefully, counting. Being old and sickly would not be nice and I don't want that in my future. But as long as I'm feeling good and life is being nice to me I want to hang around for a while yet.
There's a saying that old age isn't for sissies and they got that right. The things you experience as you age will either make you stronger or do you in. I think the toughest times in my life were when I was in my 20's and 30's. Marrying young and being broke all the time despite my husband being a hard worker wears you down. It amazes me today to see how many people that age are living high and I wonder if they'll be able to appreciate the ease that comes with old age. Not all young ones are living high, though, and it's becoming increasing difficult for those millennials to climb the ladder.
The best change I've seen in my life is how women have demanded and received more freedom and opportunities. The worst I've seen is an increase in evil that makes the streets unsafe for our children. I think that evil was always there but social mores and criminal punishment for crimes against children aren't as tough as they were when I was a child.
When I was young we made fun of gay people...called them queer and made their lives miserable. Terrible but that was the way our society was then. In today's society, gay people are much safer and better accepted and that's an improvement. I'd never heard of transgenders until much later in life. I was aware of cross dressers and mistakenly thought they were gay but I remember how shocked I was when the first publicized gender reassignment surgery was done. I don't think I'll ever understand it but I don't have to.
Soldiers were fully respected when I was young and that went on until the Viet Nam war when the soldiers were villified. That was so unfair to them because they had done only what every soldier does and that's to serve their country. The fact that the Viet Nam war was so unpopular meant the public wanted to blame someone and they falsely blamed the soldiers.
Police officers were also fully respected and still are by sensible people. I remember when police officers in the U.K. didn't even need to carry guns because just their presence drew respect. Now I'd be terrified if one of my loved ones joined the police force because it is way too dangerous for them.
When I was in grade school we had to reach certain standards before we could pass on to the next grade. Standards now are lower or non-existent...they don't want children to fail. But failure is a part of life and children need to learn how to accept defeat and how to make it inspire them. I've seen teachers on the news who don't even have a command of the English language so how can they teach the students? A good teacher is a treasure but a poor teacher is a handicap that could have everlasting effects.
Am I happy to have lived this long and seen our world and our society change? Yes! Every time I get a little depressed about some of the not so good things going on there comes along a story of courage and decency that gives me hope for future generations. There are still more decent people by far than nasties. We just give the nasties too much attention.
I've said how I don't like Donald Trump as the U.S. president and worried he'd destroy our world but I've come to have respect for the Congress and other U.S. government safeguards that are preventing him from totally screwing up. I'm not happy with Justin Trudeau, either, and hope he'll fade away at the end of his term. But I also know it could all be worse so I'll just sit back in my twilight years and watch the world turn. As long as we human beings don't blow the world up, we still have a chance of making it better.
1 comment:
Post a Comment