If you've never gotten an AARP mailing...jump to **
If you have... Start here...
So we've become seniors...past that 50 year milestone. Or is it a millstone? We're now lumped into that ubiquitous "old people" category. Strange, isn't it? We're not old. Maybe we're older. But we're not old. Our parents are old. But it seems that we're the only ones that know we're not as old as our parents... many of them still alive... some still kicking... all... forever, our parents. And they all say, "Remember", you'll always be our kids". Funny, that's one of the few things we actually remember with some immediacy. So, yeah, we'll always be their kids... and we've got a long, long time before we get "old".
So how come no one under 40 remembers "we're still kids"?
Thank you AARP for getting us thinking old before our time. Keep sending those mailings and membership applications and "senior" alerts. Don't let us escape the inevitable. Don't let us continue to free our inner child. Keep hitting us with strong doses of reality. Make us accept our doddering old age.
Not a chance! Nope! No way!
We'll continue to be childlike and silly and get into the same ridiculous situations we used to get into. And even though we've learned better over the "so many" years, we'll occasionally suspend that wisdom in favor of foolishness. Because once we lose the ability to be foolish... we lose the ability to "play young".
So let's keep playing young. Let's keep grasping at the straws of youth. Let's keep staying only one technology behind. Let's keep taking our naps so we can keep staying up late. And most of all... Let's keep disregarding our reflections, our aches and pains, our memory farts and flailings... and let's keep forgetting whatever it is we've forgotten.
To hell with reality, let's let perception rein... our perception, not the "kids" perception. Let's laugh at ourselves and find the humor in each other and in the silly situations that we inevitably find ourselves in. And let's embrace more and more of those situations with abandon and discovery and fearlessness.
And let's let those younger generations who are now our critics and bosses perk up their ears and become aware of how vital and contributing and cantankerous we can be as we hit them upside the head with our medicine bottles and our walkers... as we attack the 21st century full on.
** This is about 3 senior friends who are doing their damnedest to cope with the 21st century... although they do need occasional naps.
