Atlasette Ninety

 The drawing of Atlas holding earth is classic. Although the tale means the strength of Atlas having to hold up humanity on earth and the sky, he is the epitome of being inhumanly strong. When you are eighty-five plus, it's the time when you have to be stronger than you have ever been in your life, been. Some may say, that's not true because here I am rearing a bunch of kids and working and surviving all of the slings and arrows of outrageous fortune, and there you are with a guaranteed pension and living in your own home and all you do is sit around all day. You've heard it all before. While it is impossible to convince the younger gens that my theory about the aged having to be stronger than they once were, it is a truth. You can, as an elder, give up and let your kids or your "home" or assistants do the maintenance of your living a long time, or you can buck up and do it all yourself. No one is going to thank you or even notice. To do it yourself takes almost inhuman grit. Facts are, that you still have to clean house and garden, endure daily natural pain with aging joints and  muscles that have been working for far too many decades. They are rebelling but stiffening or aching without an ounce of sympathy is necessary.  You just have to get on with it and there is no time for pity parties. You don't have a car, you live alone, you need groceries, to see you doctor perhaps, go to appointments and manage a budget that decreases with time and there is no cute hope of getting a raise in pay. You still have to pay income tax, property tax, insurance, house maintenance, groceries, transportation,  perhaps a mortgage or rent or condo fees and levees. Yep, it doesn't end when you "retire". You might retire, but nothing else does but the job that once paid you money with the possibility of increases. You have to manage on  shoe strings. And you know what Charlie Chaplin did with those. He cooked shoe string spaghetti. Now they call it cat food. Or spam if you can find it. Oh yes, my dear, better be Atlas, very strong and positive if you want to live to one hundred.