how i got old (grandparents, physically, inherit, ADHD)
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I am 69 and have reached the mental state where it is irrelevant to me what people other than my friends may think of me. I am content with self and that is all that counts
If a person lives to their eighties in spite of drinking and smoking amazing amounts, we don't really know how they actually feel. They might not feel healthy, but just hang on.
But we could also say that if a person got old by never drinking, never smoking, never speeding, and always taking the safe, responsible, predicable paths in every choice they were ever given, have they really lived?
They might feel healthy, but they, too, could be described as simply hanging on.
If a person lives to their eighties in spite of drinking and smoking amazing amounts, we don't really know how they actually feel. They might not feel healthy, but just hang on.
Exactly, it's not the "quantity" of life but the quality. Not saying I want to die at 65 but I want my years leading up to 90 to be good ones.
But we could also say that if a person got old by never drinking, never smoking, never speeding, and always taking the safe, responsible, predicable paths in every choice they were ever given, have they really lived?
They might feel healthy, but they, too, could be described as simply hanging on.
I am probably sometimes judged badly because I'm old. When that happens, I feel like explaining to the younger person exactly why I got so old:
Driving carefully, not speeding, not tailgating.
Being reasonably careful about health, quit smoking when I was young, exercise every day, try not to eat junk food.
Worked hard to make enough money, so I wouldn't starve.
So, since I did all these good things that caused me to get old, I should not be judged badly for it!
My dad is 83. Type A and eats everything a lot. Used to smoke. He's still going strong, but what a mean nasty man. He gives our "old people" a bad name. My grandpa was 88 and smoked for over 50 years. Drove til the day he died. Miss him.
I got old by the grace of God. My husband thinks we all have an appointed day to die. Comes your day and something will take you. May be health or a Mac truck, but it will happen. He came away with this idea after surviving the Viet Nam War.
I also understand the idea that some people should show more respect to us and our ideas. I am not going to hold my breath until it happens. Too many children were not brought up to respect their elders. We can't help that.
They were hardy souls back in those days. Weaklings died young. If you survived infancy and childhood, there was a decent chance you'd live to be very old. You had to be able to eat anything, not need much medical care, but if you got past childhood you had pretty good genetics. Many were killed in accidents--trampled by a horse, struck by lightening, drowned in the lake, killed in a hunting accident, fell into the fire, but if none of those mishaps intervened, the strong ones lived into great old age in many cases. With strong genes like that if they smoked and drank, it didn't matter. Not so with people of today, many of whom would not even be here without medical intervention, special diets, taking good care. Many of today's people are skating on thin ice and do not have the super strong genetics that their predecessors had.
(My grandmother lived into her 90s, was a hoot, and was a tiny outspoken bundle of energy that could not be stopped! Died of "old age."
Yep. Survival of the fittest. People hang on longer because of medicine nowadays.
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