Youth, Old Age and Other Anomalies

Ladies and Gentlemen ...

From the mouths of our youth: "My parents just don’t get it."
From the mouths of our seniors: "The kids of today just don’t understand.”

Hmm. How many times have we all heard that?

It's as if the older we get, the more unrelatable we become. Don't they know we were once young too?

And ... what's our excuse? Do we really not understand ..?

Allow me share 10 senior perspectives with you (I'm 84; I've earned the right!):

1. So, what is youth? A young person on their way to becoming a senior citizen is neither a strange life form nor an alien race. With any luck, we all start as one and end up as the other. And then what?

2. As youth we crave romance and love. As seniors we can fall in love and have romance if we chose to. Not too much difference there.

3. In our youth we learn about sex. When we become seniors, we can continue to have sex if we are healthy and choose to (snicker if you choose; certainly our years of practice allows us to even better meet our partners' needs. What a great thought)!

4. Seniors can be open books. If we choose to. Again, the right of choice has certainly been earned.

5. Seniors have that much more life experience from which we learn our lessons and build upon.

6. Youth makes mistakes. Seniors make mistakes. They're also, indeed, human! Go figure.

7. Seniors still have to go about the daily business of life.

8. Seniors have feelings, just like them young 'uns.

9. In fact, seniors were young once! OMG!

10.  Seniors never become immune to loss, though they may pretend otherwise. Or, they may shield themselves, like some of you, because from past experience they know that the pain of losing someone close can be near-unbearable. Many, however, develop different outlooks when confronted with the inevitability of loss, including their own mortality, which enables them to move forward with grace, or courage.

                                                            _______                                                      

I have worked in hospice care. As in, I have aided some that have been in hospice care, and I have been there for families of hospice patients who needed someone to talk to during those most difficult of moments.

Does this make me special in any way? Of course not. It makes me human (there we go again).

I consider myself a fairly religious man. I am Jewish by faith and I study Torah, the Jewish holy book. I encourage all of you, regardless of faith, blood or culture, to find your spirituality and learn from your testaments.

Regardless of how old you are, it is never too late to learn. There is no substitute for knowledge.

                                                            _______

Let's address the business of finance for a moment.

If you have a spouse, and that spouse asks for security .... and you both work hard towards that goal ... is paying the electric bill and rent enough?

I don't think so.

An overlooked aspect of the aging process is learning how to take care of one's finances. However, regardless of one's chronological age, if one does not apply themselves to this skill, you will fail.

The news recently featured a 75 year-old man who lost the majority of his savings when the economy crashed. Last year, at 74, he realized he had to go back to work. He's always eaten right, exercised and stayed healthy ... so he was optimistic he'd find something. He was right. He now works two jobs: working for a fast food restaurant behind the counter in the day, and at nights as a doorman for a Las Vegas hotel.

His wife, meantime, is ill and needs him home to take care of her.

I don't know the man, nor do I wish to be critical of him. I do, however, feel somewhat bad for him. Perhaps, if he had planned differently, or better ...

In my book, "How to Prepare for Old Age (If You Haven't Married into a Wealthy Family)" we will outline steps regarding how best to prepare for such financial emergencies. Note that there is no singular answer. My thoughts on the matter are based not only on personal experiences, but also on the successes of many who have been there before.

To summarize this entry I will say this: The only real problem with kids today ... is that many of them - not all - fail to plan. I've said this before, and I will repeat it until it sinks in.

More tomorrow, where we will discuss ... romance ...