<p>When I’m an old woman, I want to be courageous, like Anne Sexton’s poem:</p>
<p>Later,
when you face old age and its natural conclusion
your courage will still be shown in the little ways,
each spring will be a sword you’ll sharpen,
those you love will live in a fever of love,
and you’ll bargain with the calendar
and at the last moment
when death opens the back door
you’ll put on your carpet slippers
and stride out.</p>
<p>Well when I’m really old like in my 80s I like to try some food that’s made with hash oil, I might die and go to heaven afterwards, metaphorically speaking. I also like to smoke a few cigars to see what’s like and definitely eat more junk food. I think I deserve it by then.</p>
<p>Shall I part my hair behind? Do I dare to eat a peach?</p>
<p>In my job I get to see people of different ages and backgrounds all day long. It is what I love about it -it connects me to humanity. What is really interesting is seeing two, say, 80 year olds back to back. One may be very youthful seeming and the other physically disabled. My one piece of advice for the best chance to stay healthy is don’t smoke. Smoking ages people like nothing else and wreaks havoc on the body systems.</p>
<p>I rarely see people older than 95 and conclude there must be very few such people. Most people in the 90s are not in great shape, but some are still gardening and one I met recently still working in the firm he started!</p>
<p>I also get to see a lot of snapshots of adult child/parent relationships. That is all they are, snapshots, but are telling. I sometimes wish the children would not treat their parents like they are imbeciles.</p>
<p>There was a human interest article in the local paper recently about a woman around 100 years old. She walked to her local grocery store- slowly and painfully, also did other exercises to keep being able to move. Her life is spent staying alive. She still has the king sized bed and makes it every day, slowly and painfully. What makes humans torture themselves instead of letting go??? Why prolong the agony? Another newspaper article about an elderly lady jumping to her death from her high rise balcony. What do you do when your body painfully refuses to die???</p>
<p>There are fewer and fewer the older people get since people die and no same age replacements. And many of those are existing as mere shells of themselves in nursing homes. Ethics involves quality of life, not just keeping people alive because technology can do it. I sure hope my body gives out before my brain does.</p>
<p>The posts on this thread by VeryHappy, anxiousmom and NYMomof2 are representative of the things that will probably keep me coming back to CC, even when I no longer have any plausible excuse to be here. :)</p>
<p>Also, lol, MOWC.</p>
<p>Working on going to the places I’ve never been NOW! Gonna buy a new camera to capture the memories!
Grand kids–made my parents wait too long probably so won’t fret. Just try to stay young enough to enjoy.
And it’s not the physical stuff that keeps you young (things break!) but your mind tuned to new experiences (music, current events, entertainment) will keep you in the loop for a very long time It’s the being open to new ideas (that don’t fit your restricted view) that let a younger generation interact with you–and keep you young.</p>
<p>I will read, and chat with friends, and nap, and cook more. I hope to sit on the porch and enjoy the rain. I’ll probably have a dog to walk twice a day but hopefully that dog will be a bit less active than my current dog who wears me out. I’d like to travel more and would love to play cards (but no one does that anymore) . I like the idea of stuff like gardening…but I’m better at deconstructing (pulling weeds, trimming) than constructing (growing). </p>
<p>Yesterday there was an 89 year old woman exercising next to me at rehab. She didn’t look a day over 70. </p>
<p>…I want to be here long enough for my future grandchildren to remember the active things we did together. </p>
<p>Have been working on the bucket list for the past 12 years. Since I already have two strikes against me, I don’t want to wait any longer.</p>
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<p>You know they are quoting Prufrock, right?</p>
<p>Not my first post on this thread. </p>
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<p>Yes, And since none of my IRL friends would, this type of discussion is what keeps me here as well…as I sit up waiting to hear the mermaids or at least get a text from the prodigal daughter that she has landed safely from a trip.</p>
<p>I want to die like the former secretary of our school: in her 80’s, dancing up a storm on a cruise ship.</p>
<p>One of my friends had a father pass away at 80 something - heart attack while snorkeling in Hawaii. She was furious that he did such an “irresponsible” thing at his age… I bit my tongue and put that on my bucket-bucket list. </p>
<p>Um, yes, intparent, I did recognize the Prufrock–that is what made me happy about those posts.</p>
<p>@VeryHappy–with the elimination of post numbers, I no longer have any way to accomplish the specific citations I would like to. So I just meant that I enjoyed the “trousers rolled” post. (I haven’t trawled back through the thread to re-read the others.)</p>
<p>@QuantMech – I was quoting “The Love Song of J. Alfred Prufrock,” by T.S. Eliot. Specifically:</p>
<p>I grow old … I grow old …
I shall wear the bottoms of my trousers rolled.</p>
<p>Shall I part my hair behind? Do I dare to eat a peach?
I shall wear white flannel trousers, and walk upon the beach.
I have heard the mermaids singing, each to each.</p>
<p>For some reason many of us know this poem very very well. In fact, looking it up right now, almost every line is still familiar to me. (Unlike lots and lots of poetry that I have read.) </p>
<p>As I understand it, T. S. Eliot was making fun of one of his faculty members when he wrote “The Love Song of J. Alfred Prufrock.” Is that right?</p>
<p>Well, now I must come and go, talking of Michelangelo.</p>
<p>Actually, if T. S. Eliot was making fun of one of his professors, then I suppose that one of the changes as I get older is that I am <em>less</em> likely to make fun of people–generally speaking.* </p>
<p>*with a few exceptions on CC, of course</p>