Too Old to Die.
Statistics about longevity are impressive. “On a global level, the 85-and-over population is projected to increase 351 percent between 2010 and 2050, compared to a 188 percent increase for the population aged 65 or older and a 22 percent increase for the population under age 65.” (National Institute for Ageing - www.nia.nih.gov).
The reactions to ageing are not the slightest bit impressive. The image of the 65+ group sitting around in slippers, dozing quietly is far from the truth. The stereotypes of ageing are inaccurate and insulting. Like all stereotypes, they lead to ignorance and misguided treatment of the group being misrepresented.
I was irritated enough by the stereotypes of old people to write my second book Don’t Poke the Fire to show what happened when a group of retired men resented being treated as past their use-by-date. Their response to their treatment is comical in many ways but the attitudes they attack are real and lacking humour for many ageing people.
How old must we be to be old? That depends on where we live and how we allow our culture to treat us. What can we do about the stereotyped images? We could refuse to accept them; overturn them; demonstrate in our actions, words and behaviours that we do not fit the image of the in-the-corner-nuisance moaning and wasting away.
Health is relevant in this discussion. Dementia is a terrible fact for many victims and their families. Their suffering cannot be overlooked or belittled.
For many ageing people the health issue shows itself in legs that don’t work as well as they used to and a heart struggling with steep hills and flights of stairs. There may be body and nerve damage, some self-inflicted and a lot from wear and tear from overactive years unwisely spent. Sensible adjustments deal with these issues effectively.
Since when did athletic legs and the ability to run up stairs make the person? Listen to the athletes who took part in the Invictus Games and find the best answer to that question.
A word of warning to younger ones – prepare for your future now. At this point the commentators add – pay into a pension, eat moderately, be healthy blah, de blah, de blah. It is at least as important, if not more important, to develop the habits of being joyful, of continuing to learn, of adapting your attitude and perspective on life to cope with any new twist or turn and to look for what is different and embrace it. Old age doesn’t turn people into grumblers and miserable old gits, it brings out what was there all along.
A while back one of my granddaughters was upset when someone told her I was old. She was concerned enough to ask, “Granddad, will you die soon?” That is the type of stereotype to avoid teaching to children. I might be old enough to die, but so are many thousands of people much younger than me.
I am too old to die. I have too many ambitions to fulfil, too many books to write, too many places to go, too many people to meet, too much enjoyment to find and lap up and so much to share that it would be wrong for me to die now. Maturing and developing new skills and new levels of confidence while adding numbers onto birthdays makes me realise how precious time is and how wasteful it is to dribble it away on trivial activities, or waste it on negative people.
Now that I am older, I need all the time I can take. I am too old to die now.
