Aging gracefully or staying shamefully young?
Whatever happened to respecting the elderly? Age is supposed to be nearly sacred in meaning. I’m reminded of words like venerable, experienced, vintage, classic, veteran and time-honored.
Yet when I look around at how our society reacts to age and how we deal with the elderly, a more appropriate vocabulary might be — dilapidated, broken-down, ramshackle, decaying and of course inconvenient.
Media marketing and culture are geared to ‘staying young forever’ and cast a sense of shame upon the fact that we all have to grow old eventually. (Some of us will even lose our minds). Snake oil youth treatments of skin cream, hair color, cosmetic surgery and even injections of botulism (Botox) are all taken to stem the tide of only appearing old.
Our cultural obsession for youth has apparently generated the unfortunate attitude that age just isn’t aesthetically undesirable, but also a curse. A curse that in the minds of some automatically makes one no longer useful.
I’m reminded of Ponce de Leon and his Fountain of Youth — countless lives spent in a desperate attempt to find true immortality with but a sip. No one ever found it and the fountain claimed much more from those that sought it than it ever gave; the same is true today.
The Evening Sun recently ran a story of an elderly man who was basically tossed in jail because no one wanted him- no one wanted to accept responsibility. Not the state, not the medical profession, not even his family. Maybe he is old and maybe he’s even dangerous too, but the only reason he’s in jail right now and not in treatment is because nobody cared.
He was just some ‘crazy’ old man who wouldn’t stop bothering the rest of us, so we put him in jail. It’s pathetic.
People read the article and think this poor man must be so embarrassed, but really… he’s not the one who should be embarrassed.
October 9th, 2008 at 6:26 pm
I agree Tyler. This world sickens me. The greed and selfishness is overwhelming. I have been following a story of Erin Maxwell an 11 year old Palmero,NY girl. This story is the saddest one I have read in quite some time. The system failed this little girl miserably. She had no one looking out for her. Not family,friends,school,DSS……..no one. Her blood is on their hands.The economy is spiraling out of control due to greed and self love.It is so sad.I wish there were some one who could help this old man before it is to late for him also.
“The world is a dangerous place. Not because of the people who are evil; but because of the people who don’t do anything about it.”
Albert Einstein
October 13th, 2008 at 4:29 pm
Was not Ponce De Leon a Spaniard?
Now Tyler that’s a good point to bring up. This shows another good reason to put the Evening Sun into Spanish print also. Shouldn’t papers also be required to have other print additions too?
I for one would like to see the local restaurants menu’s also printed in Spanish too.
I myself did find De Leon’s fountain of youth. Located in Saint Augustine, FL a beautiful resort and golf course. It has a constant breeze off the Atlantic ocean. This course will bring out the youth in all of us.