I Refuse to Grow Old Gracefully


There are certain markers of encroaching old age that can not be ignored.  I am not talking about your first gray hair (no, not the ones on your head).  Nor am I talking about the first time a waitress turns your menu to the back and points out the senior specials.   I am talking about the official, irrevocable evidence that you have entered your declining years which comes from the mouth of babes. 

            Sunday I was out for my morning walk.  I passed a cute little girl, playing on the lawn while her Dad was washing the car.   She was all in sequins and tutus, with black patent leather shoes.  I waved at her as I went by and said, “Hi, Sweetie, aren’t you pretty!”   As I passed by I heard her call out, “Daddy, I just met a really nice Grandma.”

Grandma!

Yup, one look was all she needed.  Those lines?  Those wrinkles?  That skin?  I qualified.  I am a grandma, period.  

I took the comment with a smile (ruefully damn it, but I smiled!).  Now, mind you, I am a Grandma and find it the best job I’ve ever had, but as my walk stretched out I started thinking about how I really feel about looking the part.  What it boils down to is that quote by Minnie Pearl, “If I had known I was going to live this long I would have taken better care of myself.”

 The fact is, I never saw myself as an old person until recently.  Age creeps up on us.  It surprises us.  We go around a corner and step into a landscape that we never thought we would be a part of. 

This nation is aging rapidly.  And aging, like other major life changes, needs to be accomplished with some intelligent deliberation.

            In 1950 President Harry Truman ordered a national conference on aging to address the challenges of an aging population on national policy.  In 1958 President Dwight D. Eisenhower signed legislation creating the White House Conference on Aging.  The first Conference was held in 1961.  The conferences have since evolved into a once a decade event.  The last conference was in 2005.  There should be another WHCOA in 2015, but (and this is a big, “but”) this White House has made no plans, commitment or even penciled in a date on the calendar for a Conference on Aging. 

How can such a bi-partisan issue slip through the cracks?  Are the elderly such a politically sure bet that we can be dismissed?  I don’t think so.  We can’t afford to have this Conference dismissed as, “unimportant” but neither can we have it slapped together at the last moment by a bunch of hobbyist administrators. 

If you think this governmental lack of foresight doesn’t affect you, ask yourself where you see yourself at age 88.  I want to be independent at that age, but I don’t think that will happen by accident.  We have no control over aging but we do have some control over the quality of our lives as we age.  I know these issues need attention, delineation and planning.  The White House Conference on Aging provides a venue for exactly that focus. 

            Does this effect the younger generation?  Well, if we old people can’t take care of ourselves, who do you think is going to take up our slack?  The government?  I’d rather die young. 

            Contact your Congressmen and ask their support for the White House Conference of Aging.  Help old people keep the faith.

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