As you may have guessed from much of my writing lately, the subjects of solitude, loneliness, aging, death and dying have been much on my mind. That, and the creeping sense I am not who I was just a couple of years ago, or even a few months ago. At 74 old age really hit me. There seem to be two distinct stages of my life when I look at it now — before 74 and after.
But yesterday as I had my coffee and listened to music while sunlight beamed through the windows, I decided that continuous melancholy musings on the aforementioned subjects had no place in the day ahead. I was going to put aside feeling depressed, which has been exacerbated by prolonged periods during recent days of existential angst, and feelings of numbness bordering on apathy. And, I have more time to think than is good for me.
So for now, I will put aside dwelling on the deepest mysteries of life, for awhile anyway, and laugh at myself and enjoy some of the little pleasures, absurdities, and ironies of being old.
So, here are some things to humorously lighten the heavy load of mortality that has cast a pall on me the past week.
You know you’ve unequivocally reached senior elderhood when:
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This pops up in your YouTube feed. “Dooby Dooby Do”
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One of your favorite songs is “Ebb Tide,” a classic for the ages, played by Mike Reed on the Hammond Organ, of course.
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You recall with bittersweet memories the first time a grocery store clerk asked you if you wanted the senior discount. Now at the self-checkout they automatically come up to you every Thursday and activate your discount. No fuss, no muss. No awkwardness.
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At first, AI versions of oldies from the Sixties sort of cut it, but then they sounded fake, even when the voices were perfect. Ugh!
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Sad movies don’t make me cry anymore. Real life does.
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You are fascinated and slightly morbidly attracted to YouTube videos of seniors who give life wisdom advice. This video titled, “Ten Harsh Realities of Being a 77-Year-Old Man,” is one of the best I’ve come across yet. Pure realism and honesty. No bull, no equivocating.
- These types of songs and animation suddenly are more hilarious than sad.
- This seems to sum up what a lot of us like now:
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You started cutting your hair yourself six years ago at the start of COVID and never went back to the barbershop. The shock of each new haircut wears off in about two weeks. Who’s going to see it anyway? Nobody.
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Travel magazines and advertisements seem like they were published in some other parallel universe.
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This headline on the cover of a magazine caught my attention and I had to laugh.
“Master Your Mind: How you can retrain your brain to handle life’s toughest challenges”.
Huh? You mean I could have done this years ago and not made so many huge mistakes?
- And finally, you’re free to learn whatever you want to learn and YouTubes make it so easy;
There’s a whole world out there you never imagined you’d be discovering in old age. There are now no limits, except for that inconvenient illusion called “time.”
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