Does getting older make you care less?
[NOTE: I thought you might enjoy a reprise of this old post.]
By the time my mother reached her high 90s, she seemed to care less about everything. Part of this, I’m almost sure, is that she was experiencing a marked although mercifully slow cognitive decline. There were a few pluses, though, in addition to the negatives: she had always been a relatively anxious person, and now her general anxiety seemed almost gone.
I wondered about this, and I decided that in order to be anxious it probably helps to have a keen appreciation of time, because part of anxiety is anticipating the future. And my mother seemed to be less aware of time and the future.
She also had had so many losses of friends – after all, she had outlived nearly every single one of her contemporaries – that she became more and more philosophical or perhaps stoic on hearing of the death of some of the last ones. It’s not that it didn’t bother her, but seemingly not too much or for too long.
My mother had a thing about my hair, which is curly. She always thought it too messy, and for years and years and years every time I visited her she’d frown a little bit and ask if I could brush it and smooth it out. “No,” I’d say. “This is the way my hair is. If I brushed it more it would just get bushier.” It got to be our little dance, and as she got older and older and older it bothered me less. In the last few years it made me smile because it meant she still cared about stuff like that, which I considered a good sign.
I had often joked that I’d know things had really gotten bad if she stopped saying it. Well, a couple months before she died—during her last, more precipitous, decline—she stopped saying it. I knew what that meant, and it made me sad. What had become amusing to me was no joke at all any more.
As I’ve gotten older myself I’ve noticed that long before the stage my mother reached there is often a diminution of the intensity of the feelings of youth. Some people are happy about it because no longer are they storm-tossed by every disappointment and fear they experience. For others it can segue into too much of a flatness and even a depression. Others don’t experience it at all.
I’m not sure where I stand on this. I know I used to be more shy in social situations than I am now. But I know I can still get pretty intense about a lot of things, and even more intense about some—for example, politics.
Ah, politics! You knew that would rear its ugly head, didn’t you?
Which brings us to the first sentence of this comment by “Tonawanda” earlier today [March of 2015]:
Fast approaching the undiscovered country (age-wise) it is for me less urgent what folks like BO do, however despicable.
“BO” is, of course, Barack Obama. “The undiscovered country (age-wise)” is a reference to Hamlet’s soliloquy “To be or not to be,” in which he refers to death as “The undiscover’d country from whose bourn/No traveller returns…” (“bourn” has an archaic meaning of destination, domain, or boundary).
I’ve seen and heard a lot of comments to that effect over the years in political discussions: “I’m old, so I hardly care anymore.” People sometimes say a variant of it, which is that their children can worry about it but they don’t all that much.
I understand the sentiment and I’m not condemning it, but I find that not only do I not share it, but that I seem to care more than ever. There’s something about what Obama is doing [today you could just say “what the Democrats are doing”] to trash the rule of law and the separation of powers, as well as specific actions of his such as the pact with Iran that is likely to give them permission to have nuclear arms, or his advocacy of terrible policies such as this one, that bother me intensely. There’s something about the idea of the possible death of the American republic that fills me with a personal, bitter, and sharp despair, whether I’d be around to see the event or not.
How about you?
Not care less but more fully cognizant of the limits of my ability to do anything effective to address the things I care about. As I have progressed through my 50s, I feel like I am at the beginning of a 12 step program.
The closest I’ve come to not caring (though I do care) is to consider that, at 75, maybe I just won’t vote anymore (except possibly on local issues that are important to me and my immediate community), because I can’t condone what younger people seem to want, and it’s their world now.
Yancey Ward:
More like a 1000-step program. 🙂
I don’t know what your hair looks like except what I can see in your cover photo, but I find it attractive. I guess I’m surprised that your mother was more troubled by your hair than your apple.
My mother is 94. She cares greatly but is very aware that the world is so grossly different than even 20 years ago…like Yancey says above, “fully cognizant of the limits of (her) ability to do anything effective.” So she’s guarded about how she talks about things, like politics or parenting, not trying to be inoffensive but just sensitive to what her observations are able to achieve. She also prays a lot. She knows that’s most effective of all.
It is all encapsulated in the lyrics to the song, “This Old House” by Stuart Hamblin, the chorus of which is as follows:
Ain’t a-gonna need this house no longer, ain’t a-gonna need this house no more.
Ain’t got time to fix the shingles, ain’t got time to fix the floor.
Ain’t got time to oil the hinges or to mend the window pane,
Ain’t a-gonna need this house no longer I’m getting ready to meet the saints.
One can “rage against the dying of the light” all one wants, but it is wasted effort. Better to live with the understanding that this life ends, but another, better and eternal one awaits. John 14: 2-3.
My mother is 89 and the doctors have narrowed her issues down to ALS. I think Foxnews might be keeping her alive. Still with it but can barely talk.
My dad is 89 and career military (Sr. NCO). He is totally blind (service connected). He is passionate about this country, his fellow Americans, and the American dream. If anything, he is more politically involved than ever. He is often asked why so? His answer is simple – not on my watch. It is infectious.
Oh Dear, if caring less is an indicator of cognitive decline as Neo suggested, I am in trouble. There are so many things that I just don’t care about anymore. Fortunately, I believe that most of them are tangential e.g. TV shows of nearly any type; celebrities and their lives; the opinions of talking heads about anything; sports that are money driven; how many days since I last shaved.
I do care deeply about what is happening to our society although I try not.
At 89, I care more about the ability to function independently than I do about the length of my tenure on earth.
I also care about fishing, but take a sanguine view. Sometimes they bite, sometimes the solitude and fresh air must suffice.
Note: I think that far too many people in this hectic world actively avoid solitude and silence to their detriment. I know I cherish both in measured terms.
I’m 72…still have a hard time believing that. Trying to stay active..still golf, doing my soccer recert tomorrow (I only do the 12 year olds and younger now), involved in the aviation community here. I have sciatic pain everyday, but manageable. And finally living where I’ve wanted in Florida.
So why feeling a bit out if it? Oldest daughter turned 30 (!) yesterday. Time slips away. But what has hit me is that I’m losing my only real adult male friend. He entered hospice yesterday. I had another close friend, but he got heavily involved in Democrat politics after retirement, and has basically cut me off. My great friend from college died 4 years ago, and that hit me hard.
I now understand how my mother felt at 93 as all her friends were gone…she said “I’m really done and ready.” Still as sharp as she was at 40, but had enough.
I have been blessed by my Heavenly Father throughout my life, At age 82, on insulin for Type 1 Diabetes since age 10, I should have departed this earth some years ago. So says my medical mind. But here I am at 82, and in overall decent shape. My friends, all younger, all tell me that God is not through with me yet, that he has plans still for me. Which is a comfort, but ignorance of God’s plan is perhaps not a gift. I am rational, and I like to figure things out! That is why, over the years, I have occasionally butted heads with our gracious host, Neo.
I’ll let George Harrison speak for me, s’il vous plaît:
—
I look at the world and I notice it’s turning
While my guitar gently weeps.
With every mistake, we must surely be learning
Still, my guitar gently weeps.
—
But I’m not so terribly convinced that “we must surely be learning.” If that is really so, *what* [in God’s green earth] are we surely learning?
As I ripen, my despair gives way to resignation. And my guitar gently weeps.
Part of it is it’s not their world anymore. One of my incarnations was running the field operations of a Demolition Company. Doing that I sometimes tore down the house a person or people lived out their lives in( you see the same abandoned houses out West) it was always a sad experience.
MJR, I wish Neo had up arrows or stars for posts….yours deserves many.
From an amateur guitar player also.
Thanks very much, physicsguy. I’m five years your senior, and I often feel thoughts that are akin to yours. I’m not quite done and ready, but it would be hard to mount a defense of that sentiment if it were required of me. (My defense would be my wife and children.)
physicsguy, I am sorry to hear about your friend, and I hope hospice will help him depart with dignity and without pain.
I was born in the years just after WWII, and grew up in what was, in retrospect, our Golden Age. It’s sad to think that the republic may end along with the end of my life.
Ask me again in 20 years. In the meantime, at 75, I’ve learned to pick my battles.
I still care– for my grandchildren, since we are seeing more and more the work of the evil one.
The invitation to understand who is true is open to everyone– “The Lord is….not wishing that any should perish, but that all should reach repentance.”
Several years ago, I read an Iroquois Indian poem of remembrance for their chief Red Jacket and of mourning for their lost empire, and it gave me an uneasy feeling because of its possible parallelism with our present situation. Reading it again more recently, it practically gave me cold chills.
Now, listen, Ye who established the Great
League,
Now it has become old,
Now there is nothing but wilderness.
Ye are in your graves who established it.
Ye have taken it with you and have placed it under you,
And there is nothing left but desert.
There you have taken your great minds.
That which you established, you have taken with you
Ye have placed under your heads what ye have established,
The Great League.
Woe, Woe! Hearken ye!
We are diminished
Woe, woe!
The land has become a thicket.
Woe, woe!
The clear places are deserted
They are in their graves who established it.
Woe, the Great League!
Yet they declared it should endure.
The Great League, Woe!
Their work has grown old
We are become wretched. Woe!
(Chief John Buck, 1884)
Still, I am not one of those who believes all is hopeless…I see way too much of this, people taking any positive sign and being determined to argue that it really isn’t all that positive because of factors X, Y, and Z.
Getting old has its downside yet it beats not getting old I think as I am now 79 years old and able to be fairly active, I like mowing my yard, I do low level shooting competition and on the first of September, a high holy day in Texas I will be joining out group of dove hunters for our 30th year of gathering for a fine dinner on Dove Eve and then early morning shooting on Dove Day. We have had a few of our friends move on to their next adventure and one man, Jay Tom who died at 93 a few years ago would stop political discussions, we had a few because we are a mixed group of folk, and Jay Tom would tell us that he would rather talk about our own lives, what we had been doing the past year and how our families were doing, he would then tell us that he had no need to sit around and listen to crap we had no control over and it was mostly all nonsense.
My mom died early for our families at 79 with cancer and my dad lived to be 94 and his mom had made it to 95. Dad’s sister, born in January of 1900 thought it was real funny when she lived to be 101 years old and she was a faithful Christian woman who could still play hymns at 100 years old, she would tell us she was getting ready to take a trip and she wouldn’t need a coat where she was going and then she would laugh about all the stuff she had seen in the 20th Century.
I was thinking a couple of days ago about how many dead people I know now because I lost a good friend from our church where we used to usher together and also a childhood class mate who was my first date to a dance when we were kids past away, this stuff happens a lot more as we get older. My brother is 89 year old and not in real good shape, he will be 90 in October, he is sharp as a tack mentally however his last Corvette is in his garage and he puts less than a thousand miles each year on it because it is hard to get in and out of it.
I have had cancer three times in the last 24 years and come out doing all right each time but I consider I am living in over-time and each year is a bonus year. I have a handful of wonderful kids and grandchildren and I enjoy receiving pictures of them over the internet every day or so, we trade emails, text messages and enjoy each other company when we get to see each other. Next month my wife and I will got to Michigan to join our daughter and her family for daughter’s 46th birthday and her oldest daughter is 21, her son is 13, taller that she is and her little one turns 6 in October, lots of fun.
The first of September our son who lives in Colorado will join me along with his 11 year old daughter for our Dove hunt in Abilene and this will be her second year with us, she is not a shooter yet but she is good at retrieving doves and she knows how to dress them out. My 25 year old grandson will be with us and he has been on our hunts since he was three years old learning how to pick the birds up and I can remember when his great grandfather was showing him how to clean the birds.
Lots of fun getting old if you live long enough.
Care less, maybe. Careless, probably.
I am still a kid compared to my mother but I will be 87 next February. She died at 103 having lived in three centuries, 1898 to 2001. She kept all her marbles until the last 6 months. Speaking of hair, she never fixed her own after childhood. She had an unfrocked priest who lived in her building drive her to the beauty parlor every 2 weeks til she gave up her apartment at 100.
I feel a bit like Bobby Lane, the Detroit QB who said “If I had known I would live so long, I would have taken better care of myself.”
My mother became more interested in politics and more conservative as she aged. On Sundays I would visit and watch Huckabee on Fox with her (for some reason she loved the guy) followed by an episode of Downton Abbey. Afterwards we would discuss politics and sip scotch. She loved to write and even had a couple of novels published. Toward the end while in hospice she continued to work on her latest book every day, even though she knew she wouldn’t have time to finish it. She was a great lady and I miss her.
Well, I’m 91 and I’m not ready to give up.
Loss has been a major part of my life. Relatives, friends, acquaintances, our son, and much more. I’ve learned to accept loss.
My wife is still in decent health, and we both still drive and do all our chores around the house. We still enjoy each other’s company. we bicker occasionally because We both still care. Fortunately, she’s more conservative than me. We don’t bicker over politics.
I was working in the front yard a few days ago, and a lady passing by told me that my yard was always immaculate. I thanked her, but inwardly thought, “She’s right. I take pride in the way my yard looks.” I still care.
I don’t care how I look. I’m a wreck of a man. Scars on my face from many skin cancers removed, and scars on my arms from rock climbing mishaps.
I wore a uniform – either Navy or airline for 38 years. Since I retired, I still wear a uniform of sorts – khaki pants, a polo shirt (summer) or sweater (winter), sandals or sneakers. I have one suit for church and funerals.
Since most of my friends have passed on, I have substituted reading and commenting on blogs as a way to interact with people. Since I’m so slow in getting my work done around the place, I’m down to just commenting at Neo’s.
It’s been a fine place to interact with and learn from others.
My major health problems are anemia and macular degeneration.
The anemia means I get tired easily. So, I rest and then do more. The macular is holding steady these days. I get regular injections and can see well enough to drive and do my reading on the computer.
I don’t know how much longer I’ll last, but I’m not going easily into that gentle night. I care about what’s happening to this country and won’t quit caring until I’m gone.
Michael K:
To the best of my knowledge, neither my mother (lived to 98) nor my grandmother ever did their own hair. They each went to the beauty parlor every week – different beauty parlors, though.
In 2018 there was a book titled “The Happiness Curve: Why Life Gets Better After 50” by Jonathan Rauch:
_______________________________
Why does happiness get harder in your 40s? Why do you feel in a slump when you’re successful? Where does this malaise come from? And, most importantly, will it ever end? Drawing on cutting-edge research, Brookings Senior Fellow Jonathan Rauch answers these questions and more in his new book, “The Happiness Curve: Why Life Gets Better After 50.” Rauch argues that happiness follows a U-shaped trajectory, a “happiness curve,” declining from the optimism of youth into what’s often a long, low slump in middle age, before starting to rise again in our 50s.
https://www.brookings.edu/events/the-happiness-curve-why-life-gets-better-after-50/
_______________________________
As I recall, the argument goes that in one’s 20s-40s one is constantly dealing with the weight of choices in life — career, marriage, family — and the inevitable disappointments. However, as one ages, there are fewer choices and one tends to accept one’s place. Peace.
Makes sense to me. I’m much happier at 72 than 22, 32 or 42.
Knock on wood.
I’m 64. The more I am involved in my faith, the more I recognize we seem to be following a well worn path. Money, power and control always seem to be the things that governments want. Constitutions, Magna Cartas or any such documents lose their power once once the chase for the bitter three as I call them starts in earnest. I was bitter, but, once I recognized what was going on I seem just to be an observer of something that seemed to be inevitable.
I just turned 74. I find that I care as much or more about the state of the world as ever, but I am increasingly pessimistic that any improvement is going to occur. For most of my life, I would have said that what I was seeking was to see the world as it really is, and I think I have a better sense of that than ever. I used to think that if I understood better, I could advocate for the policies that would make things better. I’ve tried to do that in my very small way, but face the reality that not much of anyone cares what I think. Neo has emphasized time and again that a mind is a very difficult thing to change, and I’m realizing just how true that is.
I really appreciate this group of kindred spirits. I am 62 now and very blessed. I can still hit an 8 iron 150 yards ( the same as 35 years ago!) My children are graduated from college and are really decent and kind, and are making their way in life thoughtfully and independently. My wife is as beautiful as the day I married her.
Still, I know I am growing older. ( “darling i am growing old….) My faith sustains me. After 33 years in the FDNY, I now teach high school history and economics (trying to save western civilization).
I have always been stoical about life. Aging makes me more so. I am so grateful for all the blessings I have received.
Nearing age 70, I totally surprised myself last week by stepping up to show I cared about an egregious wrong that had I chosen to ignore it would have had no impact on me personally.
The wife and I attended a big outdoor county music festival to see Lainey Wilson. Ms. Wilson is one of the hottest acts in country these days – she’s a very talented, genuinely country girl who has really hit it big. She was named the Entertainer of the Year by both country music associations and she’s been opening for the Rolling Stones’ tour this summer. So yeah – the girl’s a big deal. My wife absolutely loves her.
So anyway, about half-way thorough the show, there was a commotion next to us in a group of young people. A young man, clearly drunk, struck a young woman hard with both hands, knocking her to the ground. Everyone was startled, and the little coward stumbled off. I went over to the young woman – just a girl, really – to ask if she was OK, but she waved me off.
Meanwhile, the drunk circled back around and knocked the girl over again. At this point, I was infuriated at his behavior. Everyone stood around doing nothing but me. I shoved the drunk to the ground and shouted at him “Don’t you ever hit a woman again!’
He came up and tackled me, but he was a small fellow and drunk, so I flipped him over and pinned his face to the ground while telling one of the other boys in his group “Get this guy out of here now!” One of his friends came to his senses and escorted the drunk away for good.
I felt badly that I my wife had to see this and I also felt badly about rag-dolling a small guy who was drunk. But this punk had it coming. Any guy who strikes a defenseless woman takes his chances with what comes next. And if he does it twice, he definitely needs someone to open a can of whup-ass on him.
But then a young woman nearby said to me softly and sincerely “Thank you for standing up for that girl” and a young man in the drunk’s group said the same thing so I felt better about what had happened.
Would I have done the same thing if the guy was much bigger than me? I don’t know, and I’m glad things went as they did. But after I thought things through, I concluded I had done the right thing. Maybe not the right way, but let’s hope that little s— learned a lesson about what is and isn’t acceptable.
“ There’s something about the idea of the possible death of the American republic that fills me with a personal, bitter, and sharp despair…”
Me too. And it’s partly personal. I won’t be here all that much longer but my beloved children and grandchildren will. The latter especially will live in a much worse world, because of the destroyers.
Good for you Scott. In this day and age of people recording things on their phones, rather than doing the right thing, it’s nice to know there are still some people who are willing to get involved. Glad it turned out alright.
Strzok and Page get paid $1.2 million. Anybody care?:
https://x.com/mkhammer/status/1816985992731197693?t=xozWdB-F18he6tL7Atca_g&s=19
}}} I’ve seen and heard a lot of comments to that effect over the years in political discussions: “I’m old, so I hardly care anymore.” People sometimes say a variant of it, which is that their children can worry about it but they don’t all that much.
OK, I will say, right here, that this attitude really really hacks my craw, quite a bit.
And that phrasing alone shows my age. 😀
Either the world is a better place for your having been here, or it isn’t.
So if there is some cause you support, or have supported in the past, and you now realize that you were wrong, at the very least, you should be working somewhat to undo whatever wrongness you placed into the universe in your remaining time. Not fanatically — not saying you need to be publicly shouting “Mea Culpa!!” and sobbing inconsolably, but you SHOULD be making a serious effort to at least teach others why that position is wrong.
Not saying (basically) “Ah, Fuck it. It’s not my problem, I’m old enough that the real shit won’t hit the fan until I’m gone!” Great. You better hope there is no God, then, because I strongly suspect he might take a bad attitude of his own about how you screwed over those who came behind you.
Even more so when you have had kids, because you’re clearly dumping it into THEIR laps.
My aunt (about 15y older than me) has this attitude. She’s a self-defined “Yellow Dog Democrat”. And we’re had this kind of conversation, and, when faced with realizing her position is wrong, and/or is producing horrific results, rather than acking it and reversing her stance on it — taking responsibility for her wrong actions — she takes on that “Ah, fuck it!” attitude.
It makes me really want to reach out and BITCH SLAP the ever-loving SHIT out of her. 😀
She had a late-in-life daughter who is going to inherit the ALL crap she’s sown, and, while *I* am certainly old enough that I might not see much of the crap coming down the pike when it lands, I can at least say, either way, “Hey, I saw it coming, I said all along it was coming, and I did what *I* could do.” Her daughter, on the other hand, is going to land in it all face-first.
SMH.
I dunno. I don’t have that “Eph it” attitude, and think very ill of people who do.
I can see someone like me, taking an “eph it” attitude because I’m “old and tired of fighting”, but a good chunk of that is because it’s NEVER been much a result of anything I have supported or encouraged. And I’m intellectually honest enough that I would make voting choices which might not be favorable to me if I believed they would actually make things notably better for the next generation.
But no matter your age, you should take some responsibility for actions you know to be wrong. Even if they tarnish your own self-image somewhat. You’re human. Fuck up, and you’re still human. Refuse to acknowledge you fucked up, and dump it in someone else’ lap, you’re not a human any more, you’re a humaniform ASSHOLE. 😀
And sorry-not-sorry if that ruffles anyone’s feathers.
DO BETTER.
Make the world a better place for your having been here! 😉
A big chunk of what I do “to care”, and “to create change” is this kind of thing… commenting on posts and other things, in places where I suspect others may be lurking who are not willing to “Say the tough things” and express dissent with others.
I generally try to be fairly polite about it, though I ack I seriously lost my temper with someone, in another place, a couple years back, and, IIRC, it was largely over their “Ah, fuck it, who cares?” attitude.
As I said, that kind of thing really really really “hacks my craw”.
I shouldn’t have done it, but, OTOH, I was massively offended by the attitude presented, as it felt like a very important thing being so casually dissed.
Doesn’t/didn’t really justify it, but it does offer a measure of exculpatory/explanatory reasons.
But I do stand up to people and, usually, with a more stringent degree of politeness, stand counter to them and explain why they are wrong, often by fisking apart their arguments. Kind of hard to fisk “Ah, fuck it”, though. 😛 😀
Thanks for all the encouraging comments and personal stories.
We do seem to be mostly old (“silver threads among the gold!”), but if we didn’t care about what was going on in the world, we wouldn’t be here talking to each other.
I didn’t follow the news much until around 2001 (hmmm), mostly because I was busy with kids and community and church, but also because there really didn’t seem to be all that much that needed “following” beyond the weekly news summaries.
Life moved at a slower pace then!
Of course, if I had known all those years that the media were lying about so much, I might have been less complacent.
However, it was the Obama campaign that really got me hooked on political news, because every morning seemed to start with a story that elicited a “They did what??” response, and that has only increased to this day.
I care about the world our grandkids and their kids will have to live in if we don’t turn this craziness around, but have no idea how or when that might happen.
Ousting the current crop of Democrats in power would be a good start, and I care a LOT about that.
@ Neshoba – I like your Dad’s attitude: “not on my watch.”
I’m not as interested/invested in online commenting as I once was. I used to comment a lot on Venezuelan blogs. No more. Two of them stopped, or nearly stopped, commenting. The other stopped anonymous commenting. Other blogs also stopped anonymous commenting. For a while I circumvented that by having a Google account without a telephone, but eventually Google required a telephone.
If I were so concerned with commenting, I would have given Google my phone number.
Similarly, I don’t comment on Neo as much as I used to.
I love this post Neo and these responses. By chance I just had this discussion with my daughter and her husband last night. They are the parents of our oldest granddaughter, age 14. We all care for the sake of our children, but living in California suffer quite a bit in terms of the daily recognition of how out of whack things are. We center around the joy we experience with one another in our sphere of family and friends. I yearly host my granddaughter for a week in the summer and this year included our 7 year old grandson. While swimming with his 5 year old cousin, their laughter and innocent fun filled me with a delight to my soul that is difficult to put to words, like a balm. The week fulfills that saying, “How do you spell love? T-I-M-E.” I was born an anxious child, but the growth of my faith over the years has arrested the fear that once plagued me. The things that are out of my control, I commit to prayer and leave it to God. At 64 I suffer some arthritis issues and endeavor to keep fit, still managing a small construction office, maybe a year or 2 more. I have no idea what the future holds but I believe in eternal life as declared by my Savior, Jesus and keep that as my ultimate life’s goal.
Hey Davemay (FDNYx33) — Do me a favor please, and remind your children to hug you tight one time for me. God bless you all — individually and as family.
Hey Anonymous Native NYer, thank you.
Personally, I want to know what kind of world I am leaving behind when I die, and I want it to be a healthier and more peaceful world.
As an aside Neo wrote “politics rears it’s ugly head.” A system built on a foundation of the voters knowing issues and getting involved has voters that reflexively not caring no knowing issues. The illogic just blows me away.
I mentioned earlier my children and grandchildren as reasons for caring about the destruction of the republic. There’s also a deep anger at the destruction of a system of government that, for all its flaws, remains one of the great accomplishments of civilization. I’m angry at the conscious destroyers who more or less know what they’re doing, and also those who support and collaborate with them thinking that the destruction of that system will leave them still on top of the world, with all the luxuries and conveniences of our society still as available as they are now. Under their anticipated socialism they will still be able to go to Starbuck’s for their favorite elaborate concoction every day, only everyone will be able to afford it, and the workers there will make $75k a year. Maybe the coffee will even be free!
Fools. They deserve what they’ll get, but I can’t take any pleasure in that.
Old Texan: Have a good shoot! Dove hunts are great, and the society of gunners, both before and after the shoot, are terrific.
Wish we had as many doves here as in the Abilene area.
When I was younger, there is no way I would have repeatedly appeared before the Omaha Public Power District Board (an elected body) and told them that they are fools. I don’t care what they think of me. And I like telling them off; three minutes at a time.
But the reason I do it is because I deeply care about the future of Omaha and the people here. If OPPD continues down this foolish net zero path, electric rates will triple and we will have blackouts.
I used to go dove hunting in CA South of Palm Springs. That was before that area filled up with houses. There was good quail hunting in those years in that same area. Even pretty good pheasant further south. We were pheasant hunting the weekend after Kennedy was assassinated and I heard Oswald shot by Ruby on the radio as we were driving between fields.
Scott is the man!
I also testified before a committee of the Nebraska Legislature in support of a bill to stop trans surgeries on minors. The NE S. Ct. just ruled that the bill was properly passed.
I told the Committee, “I was educated by the Society of Jesus.” A proud moment for me. Again, I don’t know that I would have said that 10-20 years ago, but back then trans surgery wasn’t a thing.
Age can be liberating at times.
Cornhead:
I guess you Cornhuskers are outgunned by the young, ignorant, selfish, self-centered people who inhabit Omaha, and give little thought to the (unknown) future.
The older you get the more you see things repeating themselves and talk of change not amounting to anything. That can make one care less and less as time goes on. Of course, if there actually were major changes and real progress, sooner or later one may come to feel like one doesn’t belong any more. That also happens when things are getting worse, though.
When I was growing up we had the World Book Encyclopedia and the annual yearbooks, also the Encylopædia Britannica and Time magazine. We were bookish kids, so I have (or had) an exceptionally clear understanding and memory of what happened when and where in the 1960s and 1970s. The last 30 years are less clear. A lot of stuff happened. Where the Olympics were, who was in the Superbowl, who won the World’s Series: it’s all a blur.
I find myself looking forward to the Next Life, and am no longer loathe to exit this one. Incapacity, and the “nurturing care” of Medicare, are abhorrent, and I have resolved to die in my own bed, paying for nurses and sitters. No hospital or nursing home bed for me, period.
I know of elderlies whose kidneys failed, who found dialysis was consuming their lives, and said,”C’est tout, fini.” And stopped dialysis. Death follows within two weeks.
But I wonder with hope whether there will be bird dogs, shotguns and shells there.
My nine , soon to be ten grands give me reason to care. Keep some of them several times a week. At 71 it’s Tiring but fun also. When that cute blond sits in my lap and says ,” it’s tickle time “ we tickle ,, oh yeah she is 4.
J.J.:
Injections to hold off macular degeneration? Details, please. All I know about is a pill called Macuhealth, and I think it’s really a food supplement of some kind, or a vitamin of some kind. I’d be happy to take an injection if it could delay the degeneration.
Cicero:
“But I wonder with hope whether there will be bird dogs, shotguns and shells there.”
Not if Biden gets there first — and has any sway!
When it comes to my own disappointments and losses, I care much less. I’ve had such big losses now that the everyday ones, even the large ones like my own mortality, don’t matter as much as they once did. Perspective happens.
But when it comes to my grandchildren, so small and tender and hopeful, so fresh in the world, I care at least as much as I ever have and maybe more. When my children were this age, so small and new, I believed I could protect them, understood that it was my job and insisted upon my own success. I learned from my part success, part failure and know now that I can’t protect anybody. It’s my children’s job now, whether or not they can live up to it, and I know they can’t fully, any more than I could for them. But these small new humans deserve all of the hope and possibility that glows out of their fresh faces, bright eyes, brand new tender hearts. They won’t have the same hopeful world I grew up in, no matter what I do or what my children may be able to do. It kills me.
When I was a younger I was a passionate leftist who cared about everything more than I could back up. In many ways it was a personal failure to handle my own life.
You conservatives had my number.
Now I’m handling my own life, but I’m not going to switch to blaming the world for making me feel pessimistic, as many current conservatives are wont to do
You conservatives, I’ve got your number.
Richard Cook: “A system built on a foundation of the voters knowing issues and getting involved …” and
Mac: “There’s also a deep anger at the destruction of a system of government that, for all its flaws, remains one of the great accomplishments of civilization.”
As I learn more and more about the 1880’s/1890’s development of Progressivism, I still cannot get my mind around how and why Woodrow Wilson and his compatriots
really thought the Constitution had to be a Living Document, and government was a machine needing specialized experts to keep it running. How is it they failed to understand the core talent of the Founders in assessing the merits and limits of human nature, power, glory, avarice, etc.? And to appreciate their intent in formulating a government that was slow and deliberate on purpose, not exactly ignoring the mass of citizens, but not kowtowing to their passions either. They understood the role of true elites in running a better society, even while acknowledging such folks were often few on the ground.
As with so many things, it seemly keeps coming back to Sowell’s constrained and unconstrained visions. But just why did the unconstrained viewpoint gain such prominence? Perhaps the country’s population was expanding rapidly with foreign settlers and immigrants, and they were not immersed in the American Creed long enough or deeply enough to counter the arguments made by German university professors on “administration”, etc., that so influenced the early Progressives??
Mrs+Whatsit — a very powerful comment. Thank you.
Cicero: ”Not if Biden gets there first — and has any sway!” Most here can readily believe he will end up at the other place — where his hourly concern will be some minor demon poking a read hot poker up his … (let’s go with)… nose!
Keith: I was a little surprised at just how much grandparenthood increased my concerns for the future after I am gone.
All I’ve got is a niece, daughter to my addict younger sister and her addict stupid boyfriend.
But I care. She is an important reason why I keep truckin’ on.
No one did that for me, but I’m going to do that for her.
Est-ce que tu comprends?
F, make an appointment with a retinal specialist as soon as possible. They are the experts on macular degeneration. The earlier you can catch it, the better. Once it becomes advanced, the best they can do is to slow the degeneration.
There are two types of macular degeneration – wet and dry. The wet is easier to treat, although they now have injections that slow the dry form to a creep.
Eylea is the med that’s most often injected for wet macular, but Vabysmo is another choice.
Here’s a link to an Eylea site.
\https://eyleahd.com/wet-amd?utm_campaign=8mgNBWetAge-RelatedMacularDegenerationConditionPhrase&utm_source=Bing&utm_medium=ppc&gclid=e9d90d3f8cbe191674426b990827caad&gclsrc=3p.ds&msclkid=e9d90d3f8cbe191674426b990827caad
Good luck.
@ Cicero > “But I wonder with hope whether there will be bird dogs, shotguns and shells there.”
I have nothing against hunting, in any way, but ya gotta remember that a heaven for bird dogs is kinda hellish for the birds.
Maybe God has worked out some kind of painless “shoot & release without real harm” operation.
OTOH, a Hell for humans is a veritable paradise for mosquitoes!
Who cares?
AesopFan:
Please see this post and please be sure to read the poem there.
huxley, God bless your efforts for your niece. May they bear fruit.
same as you, neo, same as you.
When my parents were getting on, they had worries about their own or the other’s health. Took time and attention.
One issue which infuriates me is what I call the deliberately obtuse. Not the truly ignorant. They know better or know they have an opportunity to know better. Yet they lie as if they actually believe, and on some level they do, because it makes them feel good to lie. I’ve been in discussion groups where, if the issue were where the sun rises, most would insist they’ve never looked out the window to check. Take that as one, slight degree of exaggeration. Slight.
“I know [the truth] but I prefer to believe [the lie] and I don’t want to be corrected.”
Actual quote. And she tells others the lie.
@ Neo > ” poem by James Dickey, a writer who was far more well-known for another rural idyll, Deliverance and the movie it spawned”
I don’t know Dickey’s work, and have never seen Deliverance, but, yeah, that’s a poem that is going to take some pondering.
}}} There’s also a deep anger at the destruction of a system of government that, for all its flaws, remains one of the great accomplishments of civilization.
Oh, it’s more than that.
Do you realize that the US Federal Government is THE oldest contiguously operating national government, of any *significant* nation, which has not undergone any major restructuring changes?
Yes. Think about that. The closest comparison would be UK, but it went from a pure monarchy to a Parliamentary figurehead monarchy in the 1820s.
France? Multiple Revolutions.
Russia? Duh.
China? Duh.
Spain? Duh.
Germany? Did not exist in its current form.
Italy? Did not exist in its current form.
India? Did not exist in its current form.
Japan? Did not exist in its current form.
South America? All created in the 1800s.
Yeah, there are some minor nations — Andorra, Lichtenstein, whatever — whose government perhaps existed prior to 1776. But nothing of “note”. Nothing which has a significant impact, decade after decade, upon the world stage.
The same for the fewer “large” nations, like Greece, Portugal, or Sweden — it doesn’t matter if they have had a contiguous government, because they haven’t been “important” in that time — not to insult any of them, I’m just saying that there are more pressures on you when you are a government of significance, not the least of which is an increased chance of someone attempting a power grab and screwing everything up.
That’s kind of interesting — the Founders invented a system that held up against all external and internal forces for over 220 years before it suffered significant fracturing to threaten its very existence.
}}} As I learn more and more about the 1880’s/1890’s development of Progressivism, I still cannot get my mind around how and why Woodrow Wilson and his compatriots
really thought the Constitution had to be a Living Document, and government was a machine needing specialized experts to keep it running. How is it they failed to understand the core talent of the Founders in assessing the merits and limits of human nature, power, glory, avarice, etc.?
Another observation — made here before — is that the last Truly Great PotUS we had was… Grover Cleveland.
Yup. Grover was the last PotUS who showed that he truly understood the limits to government.
From his wiki entry:
Then there is his third annual report to Congress (“SOTU” by modern parliance)
I think that kind of small-government, limited powers view disappeared with his main successor, Teddy. I really like Teddy in a lot of ways, but he’s, truly, the one who opened this can of worms up by creating the first of the Alphabet Agencies.
The Dems then went and ran with it it, hard.
It was under Teddy that the beginnings of the unravelling occurred. The idea of the Income Tax, the idea that the Government was the solution to problems, the notion that the Government was where “fairness” originated.
Re: James Dickey / poetry / Deliverance
neo, AesopFan:
James Dickey was a fascinating fellow. He flew 38 missions in WW II as a radar operator and won five Bronze Stars. He taught English at Rice and U Florida. He wrote advertising copy for Coca-Cola and Lay’s potato chips. Not your typical English professor/poet.
His poetry caught my attention because while he had his academic chops — I could tell he was doing interesting technical things with words and rhythm — he went beyond the sterile formalism which ruined most 40s/50s poetry for me. Dickey always had something to say, that even I could hear.
Anyway, according to my copy öf his “Self-Interviews,” Dickey was inspired to write “The Heaven of Animals” by a Disney nature film, Thomas Aquinas’s explanation for why animals have no souls, and Dickey’s own cogitations about what heaven he would like to have.
I still recall the first line of “Deliverance,” the book:
It unfurled slowly, forced to show its colors.
Such a perfect Dickey line. The punchy language draws you right in. What unfurled, what colors? He’s talking about a map!
Now at 68, I care again, as in my youth, with more time to devote. But with less expectation that my own wonky solution proposals might actually happen. Plus far fewer cares about raising our 4 kids, now adults.
Getting more involved locally seems the right goal, but the small amount of fire in my belly is at the US national level.