Its just, we seem to have forgotten the elderly. Today people seem to go from a short childhood to adult and then pensioners, with adulthood stretching forever.
2007-07-09 10:16:57 · 20 answers · asked by Old Man of Coniston!. 5 in Social Science ➔ Sociology
Old is not a chronological age. It is an age of attitude.
I am 43 and everyone I meet assumes I am much younger whether they meet me in person or talk to me on the telephone. I look young, feel young, live young.
My parents are 76 and 81. They are active, fun-loving, and despite some health issues, still enjoy the activities they enjoyed when they were younger.
On the flip side of that, my boyfriend's grandmother is 81 and seems very elderly. She's quiet and sweet and adorable, but more focused on aches and pains and aging than being out in the world having fun.
It's no wonder then, that my boyfriend, 13 years my junior, uses phrases (or did until I got on him about this), such as "I'm getting too old for this," a phrase which is NOT in my vocabulary, as my family doesn't look at life in this way.
All of my relatives have lived very long lives (90+), very active and fun loving until just a few short years before they passed.
No drawn out years of illness and boredom.
The clock will keep ticking, but how you age is definitely a choice.
If you're still healthy and fun at 80 and 90, no one will forget you, because you'll still be an active member of the crowd.
2007-07-09 12:14:07 · answer #1 · answered by Anonymous · 2⤊ 0⤋
I have a cousin who is 102 and she certainly doesn't consider herself old, yet! She has agreed this year to go into a Care Home because she is lonely in her flat and was feeling worried about being alone should she fall ill.
I'm 70 next March, and inside still feel in my 20's. O.K. I get a Pension but I still crew a canal boat from Staffordshire down to the Thames and back, doing all the locks on the way. Does that still make me one of "the elderly" ? As you say, how old is old? Or is it a matter of infirmity - mental or physical? Or is it other people's perception of how age should affect us?
Don't tell anyone, but when nobody is looking, I also scoot the supermarket trolleys across the car-park!
2007-07-09 17:35:46 · answer #2 · answered by Veronica Alicia 7 · 1⤊ 0⤋
Old Age is a state of mind.
OK, I grant you that physical senility does creep on and the mind starts to make appointments that the body can't keep!
My mother died aged 87 with her mind intact and everyone she met refusing to believe that she was the age she was. She did not believe that becoming older in years meant that you had to retreat into premature self-imposed senility and treated retirement as the opportunity to do all those things she had not had the time to do earlier in her life. The result was that she stayed active to the end.
Now that I have reached retirement age I am doing the same - I have the time to travel at length rather than rushing around like the proverbial blue*** fly and am enjoying being able to use my experience of living to put something back into society as a whole. It is a lot more fun, I promise you.
On the other hand I frequently meet men and women who are chronologically much younger than me who are 'sad old people' and who relish being old and being as much of a pain as they can possibly be. I have no idea what they find interesting or fun about the life they lead, all they do is sit in a chair and watch the box! And moan, of course! And expect people like me - sometimes 10 years older than them - to get them out of the holes into which they dig themselves!
Still, as the saying goes, there's nought so queer as folks!
2007-07-09 17:36:44 · answer #3 · answered by O J 3 · 1⤊ 0⤋
At 21 I thought 40 was old and past it, now at 40 I think 60 and I'm sure at 60 I will think 100!!
Age is just a state of mind
2007-07-10 06:41:13 · answer #4 · answered by Mrs M 4 · 0⤊ 0⤋
I see old age as a time when a person can no longer take care of themselves. Before that, they are adult; no matter what age they are. Some are still sprightly and living independant lives right through to their eighties, while some people give up in their sixties.
2007-07-10 03:33:54 · answer #5 · answered by Frankie S 3 · 0⤊ 0⤋
70 ish I am 76 .I feel old in some ways but much younger in others. I am mentally more aware and wiser than many people younger than me but physically I am at a disadvantage. I am still reasonably mobile but I have to admit not as mobile as I was when 50. Mentally though I am astute as I was at 30 but lot wiser.Everybody varies. I have met people much younger in years than me but in actuality were much older in appearance and behaviour. To some people 80 would not appear to be very old.
2007-07-09 17:29:15 · answer #6 · answered by Anonymous · 1⤊ 0⤋
Old is a state of mind. I've know people in their 70's and 80's that are very vibrant and hip. On the other spectrum, I've known
people in their 20's and 30's that have rotten attitudes, poor
health, and are very lethargic. You are only as old as you feel.
2007-07-09 19:13:34 · answer #7 · answered by Cheyennesmom 2 · 2⤊ 0⤋
When I was 8, I thought 30 was old. When I was 30, I thought 50 was old. Now I am past 50, I don't think I am old - - - 80 is old.
"Old" is defined by how young or how old we are.
Haven't you seen a 60-ish person commenting on a 95 year old ------ "That old man is lucky he is still quite strong!"
2007-07-09 23:14:16 · answer #8 · answered by boyplakwatsa.com 7 · 0⤊ 0⤋
Being old is strictly tied to feeling old. Honestly, you're as old as you feel. In the biological sense, there is a standard. But in the moral sense, the standards are individual.
This is coming from a 16 year old person who feels too old.
2007-07-09 17:46:07 · answer #9 · answered by Cheshire Riddle 6 · 0⤊ 0⤋
As long as you can drag yourself to the pub for a couple of pints then you are not old.
Old is when you can't be bothered to go to the pub and you sit in front of the TV watching soaps and drinking Horlicks.
2007-07-10 07:13:33 · answer #10 · answered by malcolm g 5 · 0⤊ 0⤋