Age Stage

Aging begins the moment we are born. People don't think of it that way, but it is a truth. The business of being elderly is but another notch in life's time frame. For some, departing from life is earlier than the norm and for others, they move on to a new phase, their last lap. Death is as sure as birth and a hugely eventful time that we shall all certainly experience somehow. The inevitability of death needs no explanation but the matter of being elderly does. Some people are elderly before they need to be while others fight it all the way. I champion the latter. Growing old gracefully does not mean donning droopy pants or sagging hem gowns, it means acceptance. It has nothing to do with style or appearance. It has to do with not being depressed by limitations but making adjustments to meet them. It means not descending into the role of a complaining, cranky old tart. It means continuing to do what you can with a mind to safety and to contributing to society by simply being elderly. Someone else will take your place for certain. We can move on knowing that the world continues and does so without missing a beat. We wouldn't be where we are without others picking up the reins and driving on.  Giving up a driver's license, for example, is hard and many aged people drive far too long. It is giving up the independence that driving offers. But it is also a responsibility that you have to your society.  Old age means that at any moment the body can give up one of its functions and if you are driving, it could turn into a very bad accident that may kill innocent people. Giving up one's home is also a wrenching matter. Suddenly you can no longer meet all the demands of home maintenance. You are forced to live in a smaller, more convenient place but you must also live with the fact that the "family home" is no more. What you have to remember is that you are the "family home",  not a pile of lumber and concrete. Aging is not giving up, it is changing to meet new demands. And you can use the same drive and talent that you once had to understand this challenge.  The same talent you had to make to get what you worked for all your life,  is inherent in having the satisfaction of having achieved it and knowing that it takes the courage to dust off your hands and move on. It sounds easy and it can be. You can do it and the more gracious you are about acceptance, the more your family will remember you and honour you. It is their turn to take up the baton and continue on as man has done for way less than a million years. There were and there are no dinosaurs to defeat.