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October
Are You Qualified?
Being a senior is an important status in life. A
senior citizen is often defined as an elderly
person, especially one who has retired. When you
are a senior and life is an up-escalator to great
expectations, you may dream that you will never
really have to think very much about it. Life is
good. You have the friends you have gathered around
you for more than a half century, they know what
you are. You have buckets of experience to play
around with. But then you discover the times you
have known for years move away, or you move away to
a new environment like a senior’s community or
a new house or condo in a strange, maybe younger,
neighborhood or city. All of a sudden the
familiarity and the support of well tested
experiences begin to vanish before your eyes. Once
again you may find yourself faced with the task of
proving seniorship. It feels like being a freshman
in high school again. Doubts start to set in, but
you don’t have to limp to prove it.
There are so many hints from the worldly people
how to go about this process of being a senior:
Join clubs; Volunteer to help other people to meet
other seniors; Make a list of the activities you
enjoy and those new ones you would like to try, and
meet others who enjoy the same thing; Join a gym,
book club, The Elks, the Eagles, or just a golf
club or bowling team; or ride a bike, fall off, and
meet all the people who come to the rescue of the
old person; And the logical fall back idea is to
join a senior’s club; to meet people your own
age … and the list goes on: Things to prove to
others who you are.
Seniors come in different categories. There is
the upper stage of seniors who are from the
‘silent generation’, maybe born during
the Depression or before the big one, WW 2. Or
those born after that called the ‘baby
boomers’, who were born in the Summer of Life
and later became yuppies with all its historical
and hysterical implications, many remember that
era.
Meeting people your own age is the key here to
be qualified. There are criteria that must be met
to prove you are your age. Do you know what a cap
gun is, remember glass milk bottle and ice delivery
to the door, TV test patterns, or curb finders for
the side of the car? If you ask for the location of
the nearest phone booth so you can make a call, do
people look at you like your crazy? If they ask,
‘what’s a phone booth?’ you turn
around and walk away and look for a cigarette
vending machine or a Checkered Cab. Flash cubes,
Lincoln Logs or free maps or air for the tires at
the gas station are buzz words to check the age
scale of your seniorship. Repeat these to other
seniors and they will know what you are talking
about; if they know, they qualify.
“You can’t help getting older, but you
don’t have to get old.” There may be some
wisdom spoken here by George Burns. Possibly you
shouldn’t limit your new friends to people
your own age. After all, said Martin Scorsese,
“The young people today are the 21st
century.” It might be wise to fold a few of
them into your circle of friends to keep being hip
and groovy and up to date on things you
wouldn’t normally think about. Of course, of
some things they may not know what you are talking
about, but maybe you can teach them a little
off-the-wall history.
This is a hard life-game to play. Too often you
will find yourselves in relationships that blow hot
and cold. You meet people and maybe even find them
to be friendly and enjoyable only to have them
disappear shaking their head. That’s the way
it is. Making new friends means being willing to
dedicate a little time and effort to keeping your
relationship going. It doesn’t mean that you
and a new friend have to be exclusive or together
every day or even speak the same language. It does
mean that if you want to keep your new friend you
have to put the time in to develop the
relationship. Being a qualified senior
shouldn’t exclude other age groups.
There is no replacement in this world for
companionship. As seniors sometimes we need to
remember that like anything worthwhile, making new
friends our age or younger takes work, and it takes
time. Just do it and have fun with it. Just
remember what Bette Davis said, “Age is no
place for sissies.”And to qualify as a senior
you must hold your chin high and acknowledge what
you have experienced and what you know because of
it. Don’t be shy.
©2013, Patrick
Kennedy
* * *
Man arrives as a novice at each age of his life.
- Nicolas Chamfort
Patrick
M. Kennedy (P Manvel Kennedy) has been a
professional writer, editor, and graphic artist for
over 30 years. He is the author of three books:
More
Fun with Retirement: A coffee break for
seniors,
How
to Have Fun with
Retirement, and
Being
a Senior Citizen: You rnew phase of life with
many questions looking for
answers. and his
latest book: More Fun with Retirement: A
coffee break for seniors. He currently works from
Boise, Idaho. In the past he has worked from
Seattle, Indianapolis, and Las Vegas. He keeps busy
because he knows it is important when writing or
editing any material with a particular objective in
mind, for either personal use or business goals, to
present ideas with quality, clarity and accuracy.
He can do that, and he does most of it himself, but
he occasionally must call upon qualified associates
for assistance.
"My Resume shows me as an
experienced professional writer and editor who
specializes in the English language. With years of
professional experience in the
writing/editing/graphics field, I offer quality
services to both individual and business clients,
with prompt and accurate solutions designed to meet
their needs, and online editing services and
writing services for easy and quick results.
www.abetterword.com
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