What is it like to be a senior citizen today?
Everything hurts and what doesn’t hurt,doesn’t workThe gleam in your eyes is from the sun hitting your bifocals.You feel like the night before, and you haven’t been anywhere.Your little book contains only names ending in MD.You get winded playing chess.Your children begin to look middle aged.You finally reach the top of the ladder,and find it leaning against the wrong wall.You join a health club and don’t go.You decide to procrastinate but then never get around to it.Your mind makes contracts your body can’t meet.You know all the answers, but nobody asks you the questions.You look forward to a dull evening.Your favorite part of the newspaper is 25 years ago today.You turn out the light for economic rather than romantic reasons.You sit in a rocking chair and can’t get it going.Your knees buckle and your belt won’t.You regret all those mistakes resisting temptation.You stop looking forward to your next birthday.Dialing long distance wears you out.You burn the midnight oil after 9:00 p.m.Your back goes out more often than you do.The little gray-haired lady you help across the street is your wife.You stick your teeth into a steak and they stay there.(ANON)Being a senior citizen in 2016 is great. We’re alive. We can see a sunrise, feel rain, see the sky, smile, laugh. cry, see grandkids and pet our animals.We’re thankful for every second to remain on this earth.
As a senior citizen, have you saved any object from your early childhood? If so, why?
Ha ha, poor people does not have anything of value to keep.Only memories. Strange, what was a very humbling child hood could have so many happy memories of little things, like a small broken piece of chocolate your little best friend shared with you as he is led away. Bye bye.I have eaten so many of those chic-let bars of VanHouten, but nothing ever taste like it. Even the best from specialist chocolatier had never been the same. I have forgotten his face, and never met him again, but the chocolate, I remembers.So many strange memories lurking inside my head, fighting spiders, fighting fish, little snakes in Horlick bottles, night stroll in the muddy fields chasing fireflies, catching dragonflies in the bright sunlight, make up games, and a piece of chocolate.Was it 60 years ago?
As a senior citizen, what is the most thoughtful holiday gift you could receive?
I like gifts. I’m a merchandise guy. You’re not going to hear me say “it’s the thought that counts” because that is usually said to give a bad gift-giver a pass.If it is the thought that counts, then let it be a thoughtful thought. A good gift-giver takes the time to know the person they are giving a gift to and gives them what they would like. I don’t mean something expensive. I mean something they personally would like. It is not easy. Many times we are tempted to give them something we think they should have - which is not the same thing as something they would like.I don’t like video games. My kids love them. I like history. My kids hate history. I am tempted to give my kids a book on history. But I should give them a video game.My wife likes REALLY expensive jewelry and likes to play the slot machines. I hate slot machines and really cannot afford a piece of REALLY nice jewelry. I’m tempted to buy a necklace I can afford that she won’t like but will wear out of obligation. What I SHOULD do is take her to play the slots.Once when I was really down and out, some dear friends bought me a cooking class because they knew I loved to cook. It was one of the few gifts I’ve ever gotten that was something I really loved. And it was from some good friends that really took the time, listened and watched, to know what I would like.It seems obvious but we fail at it so often; the best gift you can give someone is something they would like.
As a senior citizen, are you proud of the way you’ve lived your life?
To quote Nehru “not entirely, but in a large measure “.Of course, to start with I was lucky to be born in a free India, as a Hindu in a middle class family. I learnt a few lessons, some the hard way.There are three major categories of humans. Wise ones who learn from others experience, average guys who learn from their own experience and stupid guys who don’t learn even from their own experiences. I have been all three, but have realised over time that it is in my interest to be in the first category.I have realised that Time is supreme. None can escape karma. You can achieve anything in the world that you desire and wish for. But I have learnt that what you achieve may be at an unaffordable cost.It is difficult to do the right thing, it is difficult to do a good thing, opportunities are few and far between and we pass them up easily. Bad deeds are easy to perform, opportunities are ever present and enjoyable, even if only momentarily. So this part of prayer is relevant every moment “ lead us not into temptation….”.Some things that I have realised over the decades I have mentioned above. They have helped me mould myself, so am at peace ( most of the time) watching the dramas being played out around me.PSBe warned. Senior citizens love to sermonise.
What Happened to Within Temptation?
After hearing a few songs off of their new album, I decided not to buy it even though I have been a HUGE Within Temptation fan for years. However, after listening to the songs more, they started to grow on me, and I ended up getting the album last week. I agree. They have changed their music drastically. I understand that it is normal for a band/artist to grow, experiment with their sound, but WT seems as though they have sold out, and it's sad. They were such an awesome band. :(
"Don't worry about temptation. As you grow older, it will avoid you." What do you think?
The day that temptation avoids me is the day I'll be dead.
Senior Ladies, are any of you still wearing clip-on earrings instead of pierced?
I haven't seen clip-on earrings in years, probably last time was in the dime store. I had my ears, or I should say ear, pierced when I was 14. I fainted and bumped the side of my head, and my aunt wouldn't pierce the other ear. When my daughter was 2 years old she wanted her ears pierced. I told her "you're too little." but she would see babies with their ears pierced in the stores and always asked why she couldn't have hers pierced. After 2 years of her begging, I let her do it for her 4th birthday. We went to the local shopping mall. She sat up high on the big stool, the lady marked her lobes. Then one lady got on either side of her with the pierce-gun and said 1-2-3 now! and pierced her ears simultaneously. She let out a scream, and her ears turned bright red, and stayed red all afternoon. She sniffled around and we went and got ice cream for a distraction. The next day she was proud of her earrings, but I felt so guilty the next weekend we went back to the mall, I told her I was getting my ears pierced, too. I sat on the stool, they marked my ears. I looked at my daughter, and asked her "does it hurt?" She smiled and shook her head and said "Noooo." So they pierced my ears. I looked at my daughter again and she grinned and said "I lied Mama, it does hurt." lol I already knew that. I kept earrings in my ears for about a year but had problems with allergies, even some of the gold-post ones would make my ears itch after 2 3 or 4 hours, so didn't wear them after that.
Should I join a Fraternity?
So I know what goes on in greek life, so don't give me the speal of everything great about it. My brother was all into it and I have heard it. So right now I am tempted to join a frat. It is my first year at a university, i live off campus, and i have been struggling a bit socially. I got a bid to which I am holding for a semester to a big one at my school. I know if I would join, I would party a lot, have a lot of fun, and meet new people, like a lot, i get that. Here is my problem. I do not think I will grow as a person being in one. I feel will live a shallow life for the next 4 years by joining one. People in greek life don't really talk to people outside of greek life and I don't like that. I feel I will just be surrounding myself with people exactly the same as me and I don't like that, because I grow being around people that are different, aka not white, upper middle class, guys and girls, predominantly. Also fraternaties are slightly racist and homophobic and they have very conservstive beliefs which I have been mobing away from. But at the same time, I am bored. I want to have fun and go to big parties and be irresponsible because it is the only time in my life when I can. So I will ask you, what do you think I should do?
Is cheating the act or the intention?
Cheating can be either an act (physical) or an intention (moral).The moment you got the intention to cheat, morally you are a cheat whether or not you were able to carry it out. You may give an excuse that you did not acted it out due to self restraint at the last minute or due to unforeseen circumstances, whatever. But, the deliberate, planned intention is tantamount to cheating for such intention will lie dormant in mind and can rear its head later at any time in for you to carry it out.You did not intend to cheat but nevertheless ended up cheating physically because circumstances tempted you to become a victim that ended up in the act. If you really had no intention of cheating at any point of time, you must have overcome the temptation to cheat and stayed truthful. Otherwise, everyone can blame the circumstances for their cheating and escape blame. Both ways, remember, the idea and the temptation originate in the mind and it is only a matter of time for a favourable environment to help put it into action.