How many times must I, someone old having a younger human approach me as though I am a child? Maybe older persons use the infamous walker, a wheel chair or a cane but, hey, it's a tool, not a bandage. Hearty football or hockey players use the same gear with an injury so let's stop looking down on any tools that work for pain. Please. Also, because old people forget at times, remember that everyone forgets, not just the elderly. And even if there are lots of memory glitches, don't forget that when you have spent a lifetime collecting memories, it takes a bit of time to search out the shelf of long info that lives way down in the stacks of time. Being bent is lovely in oak trees but it seems that when someone of an age is bent or brittle, it's an object of pity. Not so, old spines do it. It's natural. For we brittles, it's all in a day's work. We get used to the aches and pains and when a few of us can dwell on nothing but those nasty matters, it's because it's a pretty big load to carry in a world that moves fast and furiously and expects everyone in it to do the same. We use computers and cell phones when we need them. They aren't as important as they are to the students and workers, that's all. The older parts of the population have developed patience with fools who persist in cooing at them or reaching out with faces only a baby could love. If they need your help, they'll ask. But if you want to help, ask in a voice that isn't baby talk. We who are well educated and experienced, know the language and prefer to speak it and be spoken to as one adult to another rather than as though we are mentally incapacitated. We humans, understandably are brainwashed into thinking it's the way, but it's a silly sort of thing both to babies and with the elderly. Babies might love it, but we don't. Skip the coo and use the "who" with those who are much more aware of life and its offerings than those born a decade or more previously. Dont assume. Use your grown-up voice. We get it. Just saying.
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