What the hell is wrong with people who want to live a long time?

Sort of off topic.. i guess.

Man.. i just hope these people retire soon... in my work place, there are a lot of people of age 55+ and im more up to date on technology and education... yet i make 1/4th of their pay as their "servant"... and now Canadian government increased the age of retirement.. /sigh

reply to post by The Vagabond


I hear ya. My folks both lived balls to the walls lives. Dad was a test pilot, though more of a scientific type, rather than a wild child, and Ma was a RN and volunteer EMT.

Nowadays they both seem bitter to a degree, but they haven't given up. They still pass on lessons to the kids and their children.

I have a feeling that they both would have rather gone out doing what they loved rather than the situation they are in now.

My gut feeling is that this will be their last year. But they are still getting out and about, however slowly. They'll go doing what they can...and love to do given the restraints of their age.

I hope I have the courage to do the same if life grants me that chance.

reply to post by ColoradoJens


1. I chose 60 precisely because most people who don't have a genetic or chemical ticking bomb inside of them still have quality years left at that point, and could still have what I described as a long and deliberate career of pushing the envelope before they crapped out. If I was just talking about sudden death as an out from suffering, I might have offered 75-85 as a mark.

2. Some people have a ticking bomb inside of them- lots of working class guys are only held together by the consistency of the demands upon them- they work hard so they can retire or semi-retire and have a good 20 years of low-intensity good times at home with their family, or they take a surgery they don't need yet trying to defuse said bomb if the doctor catches it... and they're either dead in a couple of months with nothing to show for it or the surgery doesn't go well and they spend the rest of their life shut-in while the family goes out.
Backing off and trying to prolong life not only doesn't work for them, it seems to be directly responsible for killing them. No retirony for me thank you very much- if I make it to 80- and I might against all odds because I'll never just put a gun to my head and make it a sure thing- it will be because I got away with a hell of a lot of cool stuff for a lot longer than I had any right to expect.

3. Your objection shows your age, as does your comical reference to the "14-35 age group". If you cling to life forever, you're going to find yourself completely unable to relate to anyone you deal with in your daily life, and you're probably going to be very unhappy, even if you keep your gripes to yourself. And what's wrong with the occasional gripe anyhow, particularly in the online venues preferred by today's young people- the only people who are exposed to it are those who seek it out and navigate to it. And now here you are complaining about the complaints that you chose to read. It just comes off a bit crotchety.

I'm not suggesting that anyone blow their head off at a certain age, I'm just saying that life is the leading cause of death, and that's no reason to back off. How many early bird specials and Judge Judy episodes are you going to get in exchange for selling your motorcycle and accepting the fact that you might have a heart attack if you ever try to have sex again, and is it really worth it?

reply to post by The Vagabond


I think it comes down to whether you can still live your life and be productive and enjoy. Many people after 60 can and do live productive and fulfilling lives. I see your point if you are being shipped off to a "home" and cant go to the bathroom yourself, or eat, or whatever. Then it would be a horrible existence, in my opinion. That said, I was at a Fourth of July pool party yesterday with a hundred kids and families and barbeque and the works. The guy that hosted and ran the thing is 74. He was in his element, enjoying a beer and enjoying the screaming laughing kids running around him. I hope I can be like that at his age.

And my point regarding moaners, yes, because I am younger than that, I hear moaning all the time. Frankly the youth of today are the biggest of the lot when it comes to this. I didn't start a thread on it - you did. I'm simply responding. Makes me laugh out loud but then again, with age comes wisdom. Perhaps when you are older you will rethink how much life you still have to live - and how others will not understand what is inside you no matter what their biased and sterotypical references state. For real, perhaps you should have started a thread about ANYONE who doesn't enjoy life should want to leave this planet - it would be more appropriate.

CJ

reply to post by ColoradoJens


Young people already have the common sense to take their own lives. If anything they a bit rash about it. In your defense, I can agree that given that fact, when the youth do moan and yet do not take their lives it comes off a little hypocritical. But the point is not about killing yourself to stop the moaning, but or even about killing yourself for sure at all, so much as about taking a big gamble for something more enjoyable. You'd have to be a real sheep to whistle a happy tune in today's world, so I kind of like malcontents sometimes.

Most people who are in the age group of 14-35 are complete morons who bitch and moan more than any other group

reply to post by ColoradoJens


I have to agree. I am 48, and I wonder why all these kids are interested so much in older people kicking the bucket. When I was younger I don't recall wanting grandma or grandpa to hurry up and die.

reply to post by ScatterBrain


When you were 14 there weren't hundreds of 70-80 year olds shambling around your town doped to the gills by big pharma so the political and economic machinery could keep milking them.

reply to post by The Vagabond


I realize you'll not understand, but most people's priorities change. I'll take a nice sunset, my kids growing up and getting married, travelling and doing my hobbies and hopefully meeting their kids someday. I lived with the motto "dead before 40" for my whole life until a few years ago. I don't regret any of the experiences I've had, but I do regret damaging my body so much. I guess it is in the eye of the beholder what "cool" is. Sex drugs and rock and roll is fun, but it sure isn't as important as one may think. Just to add, saw Ministry this summer. Wasn't anything like when I saw them a few years back. Kinda boring.

CJ

I want to live long enough to be able to justifiably shake my aluminum walker and scream "Get off my lawn!" Nevermind that this ecosystem will never support anything resembling a 'lawn', it's just the pure anticipated joy of being able to be comforable being "that" old curmudgeon that we always read about. I want to be "crazy ol' man ____" -- not because I want to be feared, but because I think those people are an important part of the fabric of our lives. There is an old man just like that near here, and when I can court him with homegrown fruits and vegetables, he will tell me the most profound (to me) things, and he has a scintillating and mischevious sense of humor. He also has something somewhat resembling a lawn, the bastard, although God alone knows how much he chooses to spend on the nutrients and water to sustain the illusion.

I will never agree to chemotherapy or other killing treatments. I don't want to outlive my teeth. I'd rather loose my legs than my sense of smell, and I'd rather loose my sense of smell than my sense of wonder.

If I ever stop laughing and enjoying the true quirkiness of human existance, you won't have to stick a fork in me, because I'll do it myself. I have done enough, I'm happy, don't feel old, and there is more to do. I don't care about 'leaving my mark' upon the world. I am not going to die in an old folk's home or a hospital. If it comes to that, I'll chose my own way, my way, sail away and watch for the ever-elusive green flash the instant the sun goes down.

In the meantime, you all have to put up with my pedantic prose. I know. Sucks to be you.

Originally posted by The Vagabond

I spend a great deal of time around my grandmother, who is a widow in her 70s. She is still able to walk, drive, see, operate most modern electronics about as well as the average pre-teen, she has even liberalized her views considerably and accepted a lot of things that she might have considered unforgivable in past decades. She's still able to live well.

Unfortunately she doesn't seem to enjoy it most of the time. She spends most of her time complaining that the government is going to let her die, that her children don't love her, that her grandchildren are screwups, that her church is being taken over by Pentecostals, that she's going to have to take a dead-end entry level job to get by because her savings isn't worth what it used to be and she's no longer capable of being a nurse, etc etc etc.

I'm 65 and I don't put my happiness on any one else's door step.

I don't allow myself to be stuck in any ideology - - - that I'm not open to accept new concepts.

Feeling sorry for yourself is not an age thing.

However - - I don't support extending life through artificial means - - - just to keep someone alive. I'm not talking about medication or necessary surgery that allows one to still have a quality life.

reply to post by The Vagabond


I loved your OP and I agree - death should be a choice.

I like to entertain the idea of heaven, hell, afterlife, rebirth, reincarnation, recycling, whatever you want to call it, but in my heart of hearts when people say "this can't be all there is", I think to myself, "yes, it absolutely can be, and probably is".


It won't matter when you're dead cause you won't know your dead. And if you do know you're dead; and you believe the garbage they spew at you on the discovery channel, you won't be worried about what you left behind.


All speculation of course.

What I do know ABSOLUTELY, is that when I'm done with this life, I'm checking out. Might be before 40, might be after 80 (though the former is more likely).

There are things worse than death.

When you were 14 there weren't hundreds of 70-80 year olds shambling around your town doped to the gills by big pharma so the political and economic machinery could keep milking them.

reply to post by The Vagabond


Good point. I don't live in the city, I do live in what I call a farmer's retirement area. I am surrounded by old people who do seem to be pretty active, I see them doing their gardening, and their own yard work. At least where I live, I am not noticing a bunch of drugged up old people. *shrugs.... I see them as more responsible than many of the younger people around here. The only guy who doesn't keep his yard up on our block is a guy around my age, and he has teens too (no excuse).