FEC Old

Most FECsters have something in common besides raging preening self-indulgent egos and a pervasive but vague mantra of penning an autobiography: being SENIORS.

"Most" ... since FEC does harbour an invisible faction of middle-agers who have real jobs and generally ignore participating and volunteering in activities shouldered by the halt and the lame and the autocratic. One Senior did some meditation:

When you are old.

Old is a new place. Time speeds up and you slow down. Time that once stretched out endlessly, busily, productively, now perversely quickens. Yet the morning ritual of waking body and brain takes three times longer.

When you are old.

That growing cache of surprise aches, pains, and symptoms interferes with your gratitude for another day of life. Even as you ambitiously make plans for next year, next month, tomorrow, your options and finances dwindle. Old hurts.

When you are old.

The time you want to grasp and hold is so often frittered on health issues, medical visits, diagnostic waffling or shock revelations, counting pills, learning assistive equipment, relying on strangers for token services. No more high heels. No more dancing.

When you are old.

Friends move away. Friends die. Loss. When you are old, making new friends is laborious. People your age are just as opinionated and suspicious as you are. Young people inhabit an alien world only faintly familiar. Or are you the alien?

When you are old.

Your senses dull. People get impatient with your hearing impairment, your unsteady gait. You get impatient. You forget things. Focus and concentration, listening, conversing, reading, all take conscious effort. Socializing might be painful.

When you are old.

Creative introverts and hermits win — those who live alone, adapt to it, prefer it. They like themselves, have inner resources, are not lonely. They share when the spirit moves them and energy complies.

When you are old.

Time has no time for you.