Senility and Sensibility

This year, at its end, I turn 60. The big 60, so I thought it timely to think of all the good things and bad about being this old.

1. Hair grows unexpectedly in noses, ears and on top of toes! I am grateful for the cosiness and warmth this generates.
2. I need to lean on walls to put on underpants but I'm grateful my knees still bend without pain.
3. I forget the names of people, places, dates and things but I'm so glad I'm clearing my brain of such unnecessary clutter.
4. I require glasses for close-up and far away. It's great! It's much easier to meditate while walking as I see no details without glasses and enter a less distracted zone.
5. I sometimes fear that others might spot my frequent mistakes. Such as forgetting why I entered the room, what I'm supposed to be doing or even what I've just done. I'm thankful that no one really gives a damn.
6. My face and body look like a deflated balloon. I'm so grateful that I've grown accustomed to this undulating landscape which grows increasingly textured.
7.  I no longer hear what some people say. I'm happy that most of the time I'm not missing much.
8.  I have developed an aversion to those suffering from middle-aged angst, especially men in their forties who suddenly grow their hair long, buy a motorbike and get an earring. But feel a strange kinship with adolescence and a deep abiding love for all small children and babies.
9. I'm no good at filling in forms or standing on buses but thankfully I've reached that sweet age when people are kind enough to help with forms and offer me their seat on buses.
10. At night, when I can't sleep, I convince myself I'm dying from some dreadful disease. As the hours go past I reach that delicious sense of detachment. I no longer give a damn. I'm too tired to care about dying.
11. I'm a little rough with people but then I was ever so!
12.  I get my sons names mixed up. But since I now also call my grandchildren by my son’s names they have stopped correcting me. I'm obviously no longer in correction phase but have moved into a stage worthy of pity.
13.  I hate a cluttered home and want everything in its place. The tidiness is inversely proportional to my completely chaotic mental state.
14.  I can pick arguments at the drop of a hat but good friends love me anyway.
15.  My mum is 85 so often forgets things. Fortunately, she remembers more than I! So that cheers her up considerably.
16.  I have surprisingly little and have grown accustomed to the lightness of that load.
17.  No one befriends me because I'm rich and that's a wonderful filter to find the real gems out there.
18.  I am an odd creature, even I notice that, but thankfully have begun to call it unique instead.
19.  My father used to say he had more real friends in the next world than in this one. I reckon mine is 50-50 but I've definitely lost some of the best.
20.  Small things can upset me disproportionately. Cause pacing and stomach churning. Thankfully, I have usually forgotten them by the next day.
21.  When I read newspapers I can no longer find news, just nonsense. When did reality and what they tell us diverge so completely?

Summary

Have I learnt anything from life so far? 

We have a tendency to worry about what we shouldn't 

and to ignore what we need to be doing. 

So worry less and do more!

Coffee time in Malta

There are a wealthy couple sitting with friends at a nearby table in this café.  The man is complaining about the delay in the delivery of his new Porsche to Malta.  Later, they move on with relish to discuss their forthcoming holiday in Moscow where they hope to visit the Winter Palace and are twittering on in a fashion fit to annoy anyone.  They have that peculiar plumy English accent that sets your teeth on edge.  He is babbling again at the top of his voice,

“Life is still fun and worth living”, the sixty odd year old proclaims. 

“The economic situation has not touched me, thanks goodness.” He follows in smug tones. 

I believe fate places such people nearby to annoy and test me.  Now, he is complaining about his computer system’s inability to respond to his commands.  I find myself strangely comforted that PCs, at least, do not jump to the beck and call of that “rulers of the empire” tone.  Computers are democratic and as such equally rebellious to all.  It’s weird that in Northern Ireland I’ll  be specific about coming from north of the border but when on an island in the Med I morph into Irish for fear of being associated with these colonial types.  My father always claimed that there was something about ruling an empire that damaged emotions.  He would name them one by one, tapping on each finger in turn, pausing at each tap to raise his eyebrow as if exhibiting another proof of his argument.  His reasoning was, if you had to keep the locals underfoot it required you to be missing on certain wavelengths including for example compassion, empathy, humility, modesty.  It has taken years for recent research to prove that keeping a nation or people in subjection is as damaging to those who rule as it is to those who are abused. 

It stands to reason then that keeping women in a lower state will have equally negative effects on both men and women.  Injustice is evil, not just because of its unfairness but also due to its long-term damage on all concerned.  In India 50 million girls are missing due to abortion of unwanted female babies.  In that culture boys are preferred.  The end result of this tragedy is that girl abductions/rapes are common.  How horrific that following the quiet death of millions of female girls, young women who have survived this first cull are being singled out for yet more violence.  Of course India is not alone, violence against women crosses all borders, Rwanda, Sierra Leone, Yugoslavia, South Africa, Afghanistan and one of the highest rates of domestic abuse is found in Papua New Guinea.  So much of this violence is under the radar despite its horrific nature.  Violence against females in our midst is a world problem and not limited to any one nation. 

Whatever the realities that lie beneath the statistics you can be sure that both men and women are being damaged in this process.  I look forward to the day when we realise that injustices such as prejudice of race, religion or gender damage us all.  Sense that the growing gap between rich and poor is another unsustainable trend.  Otherwise the corrosion eating into the vitals of human society will continue, I fear.  

Time to leave, my one coffee has lasted an hour and a half and the staff are becoming increasingly restless round me.  At least I outlasted the plumy toned fellow on my left.  Obviously, I have prejudices of my own to weed out! 

PS Proceeded out of the café and walked a good half hour along the coast only to be brought up short with the dreadful realization I had forgotten to pay for my coffee.  Walked back guilt ridden, apologized and paid.  This growing older business is embarrassing at times!