Becoming elderly isn't so bad

[SorryNotSorry]

We can choose to grow old gracefully, or disgracefully.

While I'm not exactly enthused by the prospect of being allowed to act like a total snot once I reach retirement age, I nevertheless look forward to growing old, especially because I never smoked and rarely drank.

One good thing about old age is no more ads from life insurance companies.

One good thing I'm already enjoying is... no more morning wood! :twisted:

[Tarfeather]

Yeah when you don't have unidentified diseases eating you up from the inside from an early age, I bet getting old isn't so bad..

[Skycaptain]

In Britain we're not allowed to grow old because the nation can't afford it, all we can do is stay middle aged and working.

[Techie]

One good thing about old age is no more ads from life insurance companies.

True. You start getting ads for hearing aids, braces and final expense planning. Even though I am 53 I get many of those because my late father and I have the same name. A computer quite some time ago made the assumption I am him and marketers picked up on it.

[Gloomy]

I'm kind of looking forward to having naturally white hair when I'm older. I'm in my 20's but I'm already getting a few white hairs, and I actually think it looks cool. Once my hair is really white I'll probably stop straightening it since I think wavy white hair is beautiful.

[Spotastic]

I don't really have a problem with the idea of becoming elderly (although I have to make it through middle-aged first - I'm only 33). My problem is that my body already makes me feel like I'm elderly. I have a bad back and knees from my time in the military and need to use a cane or walker to get around. I need to lay down for about an hour at least once a day, and that's improved since moving to an area with little humidity. I can't work outside the house. I'm not looking forward to getting older.

[seneca]

At 50, I feel old. I have stenosis and arthritis which is affecting my joints. I used to be able to walk 20 miles a day. No more. Jack Palance was right, gettin old aint for sissies.

[Autumn Sunrise]

That's OK, seneca - we're not sissies :D :lol:

[Karanna]

Talk for yourself! getting old is awful. The aches and pains a person gets. If you fall and bake bones they take for every to mend. You get treated if you have lost your mind. You slow up and get in peoples way. Your mind starts to fade and you cannot remember if you switched the stove off or not, and that goes for other things as well.

When you reach your late70 and older you become an irritation to younger people.

I can go on and on! and I am only 56 and have not reach the age when all that starts to happen. And defiantly not looking forward to it, do not even think about it for it scares me terrible!

[BobRossRules]

I don't know what to think about that. Certainly your health has a lot to do with it. Personally, I'm healthy (well a little deaf and a tiny bit blind :lol:), but otherwise I'm in good health. I'd hate to think that I was a burden and annoyed younger folks. However, being around folks my age, maybe joining a hip retirement community - I dunno.

[Muledeer]

I try not to think about getting old. I'm not afraid of dying but I am terrified of not dying....before I can't make it on my own anymore.

[Sally]

I try not to think about getting old. I'm not afraid of dying but I am terrified of not dying....before I can't make it on my own anymore.

That's what most people are afraid of, I think. Interestingly, in the US states which have assisted suicide laws, people who are terminally ill and able under the law to obtain the means to kill themselves feel such relief at having that power, they tend to wait longer to use it. Becoming helpless is what scares people.

[Mocha Jo]

Thinking of the Wiccan three phases- Maiden, Motherhood and Crone- I am embracing my Crone phase. I feel I have learned a lot over my lifetime, and am looking forward to more learning to come. As the physical wanes, the mental takes up the slack.

[Qutenkuddly]

Thinking of the Wiccan three phases- Maiden, Motherhood and Crone- I am embracing my Crone phase. I feel I have learned a lot over my lifetime, and am looking forward to more learning to come. As the physical wanes, the mental takes up the slack.

Merry met! I content myself to nurturing my inner Dagda (aside from the sexual appetite, of course).

[Mocha Jo]

Merry meet, Qutenkuddly. Yes, the sexual component of Wicca is sort of annoying- I pick and choose what I follow, LOL. I view myself as more of an earth mother. Crone suits me more than either of the other two phases.

[Guest Jetsun Milarepa]

It's great growing older! I have less fear/expectation of myself, I'm not afraid to say my piece and I'm comfortable in my saggy old body in a way I could never be as a young person. It's true that the UK government are now making us work on till 67 , but I'm working on a way to avoid that!

[imnotafreakofnature!]

I'm 52, but I'm younger now than I've ever been, so I guess I'd have to agree that getting older isn't so bad. Dr. Christiane Northrup, in her books The Wisdom of Menopause and Women's Bodies, Women's Wisdom, talks about how menopause actually completely re-wires our brains and prepares us for the second half of life. That's why so many women are gearing up and taking on new challenges at the same time that the men are getting ready for retirement and looking forward to winding down. For me, I'd finally had it with my previous career in retail management, so I did a complete about-face and became a school bus driver, of all things! Not something I had ever considered before, but I'm much happier now.

Mocha Jo and Qutenkuddly, have you ever read Queen of Myself? I think it's by Donna Henes. For those of us who aren't ready to embrace cronehood yet, she's come up with another category - Maiden, Mother, QUEEN and Crone. That's where I'm at - finally becoming comfortable with who I am, feeling more powerful and confident and more in charge of my own life and destiny than I've ever felt before. It's MY time! 8) When someone asks how old I am, I often tell them I'm old enough to know the score - but I'm still young enough to dance to it! :lol:

[Qutenkuddly]

imnotafreakofnature!, Queen! I like that! :D I'll have to point that out to the female membership of my local pagan community.

[Myssterry]

Becoming older is fine while you can work, or you have a good pension. If you are at the mercy of the current UK government it isn't always much fun.

I have been following the WASPI campaign to get the government to rethink its treatment of the first generation of women in seventy years not to receive the state pension at 60. This change was poorly communicated, the sliding scale of age to state pension age must have been worked out by someone after a very good lunch out, and it throws more people onto benefits after a working life of forty years and more.

This is an example of a woman affected by the changes: "Hi Lorraine I get e.s.a get 89 pounds week...my occupational pension of 50 pounds month is deducted as DWP call it excess income...so I am below the poverty line ..also have to pay council tax from the pittance left .."

£89 a week won't keep a fly alive, and yet they take her pathetically tiny pension off her.

Video clip shows George Osborne's attitude - delayed female pensions just save money. Watch from 40 mins in or you will lose the will to live.https://youtu.be/nK49tYSXtqI

[Muledeer]

Is the UK State Pension similar to Social Security in the US? Does everyone (except women) get a state pension starting at age 60?

[Myssterry]

I don't know the American system. Women here have had the state pension at 60 for the last 70 years. The age has been raised to equalise with men but has been poorly communicated leading to inadequate notice and this rise in age was pushed further and accelerated sharply quite recently. This has affected women born in the 1950s especially badly leading to cases of genuine hardship. If jobs are lost when turned 60 it is very hard to find new employment, the benefits system here has become brutal, and the pension when you finally qualify for it is one of the lowest in Europe.

[Sally]

I notice that those who gleefully proclaim "It's great getting old!" are under 60.

[Tanzanite]

As long as I'm still agile, I think I'll be fine.

[coyote55]

I like to think of myself as a composite of all the ages I've ever been, and can draw on any of them as desired. The most recent "layers" are slowing me down a bit, though.

[Little Sparrow]

First of all, bring on the menopause I say! Can't wait to be rid of my periods, which are a pain and in my case serve no purpose.

Sometimes I think getting old can't be so bad - retire, do what you want all day, plus my sister had promised me a "Hell's Grannies" jacket for my 60th birthday.

On the other hand, I might well be at the mercy of the UK government (unless I get kicked out for being an EU migrant), which means I'll have to work until I'm ancient and then I'll have no money except for the crappiest of care homes. Ho hum.

[cavalier080854]

UK pensions, men receive it when they reach 65. Women received it from 60, but, over the past few years this is increasing to 65 (same as men) due to equality of the sexes, this is to be reached in 2018. After this from December 2018 to September 2020 the retirement age increases to 66 for both sexes, to be increased to 67 later. Future plans are to make retirement at age 70.

As for myself I'm due to retire on 6th July 2020 aged 65 years 10 months and 28 days.

[fissiparity]

I don't have any reservations about getting older in fact I welcome the ageing process. However I'm of the opinion that older asexual people particularly men (this goes for older unattached men in general) are treated worse than younger people (asexual or otherwise) who are tolerated by the ignorant and uncomprehending masses.

[Mountain Rain]

I'm well into this aging process at 64. I sometimes look in the mirror and wonder who the hell is looking back at me, (she looks a lot like my mother) because I don't feel like "she" looks.

I have my share of aches and pains, thank god for generic celebrex, that helps, but I swear so much of feeling old is mental to me. I really try to make the effort to look as nice as possible, despite all the body changes, the extra 10 lbs. I try to keep myself busy with things I like to do.

I know for sure I won't get out of this alive but I want to live happy as long as I can.

[Tanwen]

I began to draw my State Pension when I was 60 - they wrote to me and asked if I'd like to defer it and get a bit of extra money - but being the happy little soul I am I said 'Nope, don't know how long I'll be around so I'll have it now thank you' :p I'm still working though - stops the bank manager sending me begging letters! :lol:

[LoneAngel]

I'm 66 years old. The older I get, the more I can make sense of my checkered past. Over the years, pieces of the puzzle have slowly found their spot in the big picture. Past chaos is now making sense. I have learned that a traumatic past can offer raw material for creativity and a renewed sense of wholeness and purpose.

And yes, being healthy and functional is essential.