Sunday, November 30, 2014

Old .. Doesn't Mean Dead: Thanks for the Old Folks

"I woke up this morning, and I can't believe I'm so old," Aunt Amelia told me decades ago. The day I woke up officially "old" this year, I couldn't believe it either.
Invisible as old people are in our culture, they are all around us — a diverse lot. Some never retire and love working until the day they drop dead. Some retire, get joint replacements, and go off to travel, do charity work or play with grandchildren.
President George H.W. Bush was still skydiving at 90, while others are graduating college at 95, or water-skiing at 100. They are the exceptions, of course. But where is it written that old people can't do stuff?
This Thanksgiving, I'd like to give thanks for all our old people, mainly because few people do. Seniors will undergo big cutbacks in Medicare under Obamacare because they're viewed as a costly burden on the health care system. Indeed, Obamacare's chief architect, Ezekiel Emanuel, made the chilling pronouncement that he doesn't want to live beyond 75 because his "productive" life would be over.
Not me. Time is a precious commodity, and many old people are wise enough to use it better than they did in their youth.
Read the rest of the column HERE.

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