Elder Advice

As the birthdays continue to accrue, my in-box receives more encouraging messages from well-intentioned (younger) friends. This one, however, comes eerily upon the recent death of the ascribed author of the words, George Carlin.

What I have learned is that my mother's words haunt me. She told me as she advanced into her 70s that it surprised her each morning when she saw herself in the bathroom mirror and she didn't recognize the old woman who looked back at her. She commented that within herself, she felt the same as she had felt when she was in her 20s: youthful, filled with the joys of life, ready to live for 100 years. It was only when she saw herself in that unguarded morning moment that she realized how many of those years had already passed.

I'm heading toward the middle 60s and beginning to wonder about how many more years are pre-programmed as my life span. I've always been healthy, but have had to adjust my thinking to include the 2 broken arms, the asthma, and the diabetes II that remind me that even healthy peoples' bodies deteriorate over time. I continue to awake each morning and accomplish most of the items on my to-do list, but some of those items require a helping hand -- and there isn't one handy, so I do what I can do and move what I cannot accomplish without help to the bottom of the list.

Re: George's wisdom, it's what I've heard for a lifetime, but the admonitions seem more relevant when there are fewer years ahead than there are behind. I've tacked them on to this posting in case you are the kind of person who needs the list to remind you how life is to be lived, rather than regretted when it comes to a close.


George Carlin's Views on Aging: HOW TO STAY YOUNG

1. Throw out non-essential numbers: this includes age, weight and height. Let the doctors worry about them. That is why you pay 'them.'

2. Keep only cheerful friends. The grouches pull you down.

3. Keep learning. Learn more about the computer, crafts, gardening, whatever. Never let the brain idle. 'An idle mind is the devil's workshop,' and the devil's name is Alzheimer's.

4. Enjoy the simple things.

5. Laugh often, long and loud. Laugh until you gasp for breath.

6. The tears happen. Endure, grieve, and move on. The only person who is with you your entire life is yourself. Be ALIVE while you are alive.

7. Surround yourself with what you love, whether it's family, pets, keepsakes, music, plants, hobbies, whatever. Your home is your refuge.

8. Cherish your health: If it is good, preserve it. If it is unstable, improve it. If it is beyond what you can improve, get help.

9. Don't take guilt trips. Take a trip to the mall, even to the next county, or to a foreign country, but NOT to where the guilt is.

10. Tell the people you love that you love them at every opportunity.

REMEMBER: Life is not measured by the number of breaths we take, but by the moments that take our breath away.