Roaming around the internet with inspirational pictures of gardens and nature, all gauzy and pretty:
"I asked an elderly woman once what it was like to be old and to know that the majority of her life was now behind her.
"I asked an elderly woman once what it was like to be old and to know that the majority of her life was now behind her.
She said she watched her body age and her faculties dull but the person she is inside never got tired. She never aged. She never changed.
Remember, our spirits are eternal. Our souls are forever. The next time you encounter an elderly person, look at them and know they are still a child, just as you are still a child and children will always need love, attention and purpose."
~ Author Unknown
I'm as elderly as the next guy (70) and this does not resonate with me at all. I think about myself at a young age, say, fifty, and I almost can't believe I'm that guy. I suppose my core neuroses are intact. I'm still easily embarrassed for example. But, I am completely different. Compared to me as a child, I'm barely the same species.
The person I am inside is definitely tired and the voice inside my head hasn't said, "let's get high for days" or "you're not the boss of me" or, even, "that's not fair" in a long, long time.
I agree that people need "love, attention and purpose" for sure and, it's not that there is no trace of my childhood. But, I read this and my first thought (because a certain kind of insecurity has made it though since then) was why can't I be like that, serene, connected to my past, expressing the innocence and creativity of my youth, eternally young inside.
And then I felt like I had to ask: Is this real? Or is this a media fiction like, I don't know, the media presentation of female beauty, a made up idea whose only connection to actual reality is the sadness it causes in people who can't live up to it?
So, I have to ask and I apologize, too. Does anyone believe this is real?
The person I am inside is definitely tired and the voice inside my head hasn't said, "let's get high for days" or "you're not the boss of me" or, even, "that's not fair" in a long, long time.
I agree that people need "love, attention and purpose" for sure and, it's not that there is no trace of my childhood. But, I read this and my first thought (because a certain kind of insecurity has made it though since then) was why can't I be like that, serene, connected to my past, expressing the innocence and creativity of my youth, eternally young inside.
And then I felt like I had to ask: Is this real? Or is this a media fiction like, I don't know, the media presentation of female beauty, a made up idea whose only connection to actual reality is the sadness it causes in people who can't live up to it?
So, I have to ask and I apologize, too. Does anyone believe this is real?