h2g2 The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy: Earth Edition

As someone who is living with a wheelchair user I would say being able to walk is hugely over-rated (oops wrong thread)...there are many things that hubby and me would never have been able to do/experienced had he not been disabled (not having to queue for the rides at alton towers after paying 1/2 price to get in rates fairly highly...and of course the hang-gliding, paragliding, motortrike riding). Sure it can be a pain in the a**e at times and we are lucky in that apart from a bit of help getting in and out of the bath (although we could have put in a roll in shower...he likes his baths) he doesn't need any help with personal care.

We all have things that we see as the worst things to live with...and yet people live with all these things and more every day and still feel they live an enjoyable life. Oh b****r I've rambled off again...I think my point was that whatever happens in your life it is quite possible to deal with it and still live happily ever after (hmm I always seem to become horribly optimistic on fridays...I'll probably re-read this on monday and feel queasy).

I think we all fear the unknown, and I think we all fear losing control, either of our lives, or our bodies, or our minds. I would personally say losing control of your body is a damn site better than losing control of your life or your mind. But then I'm determined to be a dotty old fool from the age of 65 anyway (planning to become a full time naturist and shout loudly to anyone nearby that "i'm not deaf" )

I'm 26, still at Uni (PhD), with 4 years' student loan debt already (UK student loan from before tuition fees, so only 9K) but I haven't yet held a full time job, don't have much in the way of savings, no pension...
I haven't started out on a job/career really yet and I'm already behind on saving for my retirement.
Meep.

I agree with those who are afraid not of growing old but acting old. I just graduated from college (or uni, as you Brits call it), and I'm already nostalgic about the good old days when I did very little all day and didn't worry about it. I still get emails from my friends still in college, and I miss the fun we used to have.

On the other hand, I find myself feeling too mature to actively engage in those sorts of things. It's like I'm saying, "You kids go have fun. I'll just sit and watch, thank you very much." That's the part that scares me, that I'd rather watch people having fun that to have fun myself. I'm not a fan of forcing myself to do things, so if I don't feel like doing something, I won't do it.

It feels like the best opportunities in life are passing me by, and I'm too lazy to take advantage of any of them.

Wampus

Actually very few people have absolutely no sight at all. The commonest cause of sight loss in the aging population is macula degeneration which affects central vision. Therefore tasks requiring detailed vision are most difficult, but not necessarily impossible, with Low Vision Aids. (I've got a guide entry being edited on this subject.)

I think I'd hate going deaf & not being able to enjoy music & a good gossip.

Being lean, fit and beautiful is god's way of compensating the young for their lack of wisdom and experience.

an overweight 40 year old with almost no pension called Ben

Ah but the memories, Ben, the memories!
That's the joy of growing old; being able to relax and remember; being able to smile at the memories.

Oh, and the self-satisfied, smug, know-it-all feeling I get when listening to young people rattle on about things they can't control and trees they can't see for the forest.

Life is Change people; nothing is predictable except that nothing ever works out as planned. 90% of what IS now, was never on my radar before it happened. Life is a series of shocks and surprises. The best laid plans of mice and m...

So enjoy it all now and only look forward to remembering it all later with a smile. Much later. Or as much later as you can get away with.

peace
~jwf~

Ditto, jwf.
"They can't take that away from me":50 odd years of happy memories..
Sometimes the grasshoppers win. My best friend has paid into a pension for most of her adult life. I haven't. In what is our relatively imminent retirement(though I've just been told I can hang on here to 65 if I want to), we will not be in materially different circumstances. Her pension company went bust. Thanks to compound interest my very small insurance policy that pays out next year will push me round the world for a few years yet.
My grandmother lived in what would now probably be considered poverty until she was 99. I hope to better that.

It's better than the alternative, I suppose.

Right now I feel 99 years old.
My son's girlfriend will never grow old, she reached 19 then died of a brain haemorrhage.

The funeral is on Wednesday and I've never felt so old.

Hey ~jwf~ what I was saying was I *much prefer* being who and what I am now, than who and what I was 20 years ago.

The ignorance, and lack of experience, and lack of wisdom, are high prices to pay for youth.

Ben,
who would not trade away her hard gained wisdom at any price

>> The ignorance, and lack of experience, and lack of wisdom, are high prices to pay for youth. <<

LOL.
Yep! Y' get watcha pay for, that's a certainty.


~jwf~

>> The ignorance, and lack of experience, and lack of wisdom, are high prices to pay for youth. <<

But ain't it fun *getting* that wisdom Ben

KerrAvon- an odd cross-breed of young/old- 20, with a 43 year old partner, freinds in their 50s, who goes out every friday, and gets pissed with said mates

Ooh yes, KA, it is. And I intend to actively persue wisdom in any form that interests me until I die.

In fact I value Richard Feynemann's request to his surgeons to wake him up if he was going to die during a particularly difficult operation. He wanted to observe his own death. Now that is taking a lifetime's dedication to learning to its absolute conclusion.

B

Hey, dying doesn't bother me at all it's the few seconds directly preceeding it that I worry about - the "you did tighten that karrabiner, didn't you?" or the "watch that truck, it's driving a bit funny" - or the "Oh look, a jellyfish".

I'm not terrified of getting old, I'm terrified of NOT getting old.

I want to watch my kids grow up and be there for them like my mum and dad were for me.

Not bothered about financial riches, it can't buy happiness and family, but it'd be nice.

Mobility in old age? well mum's been disabled since her early 20's and wheelchair/house bound for the last 15 years. You adapt to suit and put a bit of effort in to make her quality of life better, just as I'd like to think my kids will if ever me or the wife get in the same situation.

Now in my early 30's with a wife and young family, skint but happy, my only worries are the years of smoking (now quit 1yr 10mnths)and couple of years of drug experimentation I did in my youth.

Try and stop and smell the roses. Enjoy your friends, enjoy your hobbies, enjoy life and bring enjoyment to others, you might get run over by a bus tomorrow.........

Yes.
I've seen the mental detriation of lots of old people and the idea of that happening to me some time scares me.

I'm not worried about losing my mind for one simple reason- a good friend and I have had a pact, ever since he had worked in a nursing home for a while- if ever either one of us become a "eating s******g and sleeping machine", the other will end that person's non-life. So I *know* I will never have to live like that. I know that sounds unlikely- but we have been through a lot together, and we trust each other totally.

Having talked blythely about the benefits of wisdom, I admit that I *really* do not like the idea of being incapable of making a living, and having a limited income.

But old age is not the only reason that that could happen. Illness is another, and changes in technology or the job market is a third. But yes, I do fear that.

B

Growind old does scare me. The idea of loosing my independence and turning into a cripple, mentally and physically, is frightening. I'd take my own life before I revert to childhood again. I hope technology will be able to cure old age before it happens to me. Death doesn't seem that bad, as long as I feel I have achieved something in life. I don't feel I have so far but hopefully that will come.

I can see euthanasia is creeping into this thread & the name Diane Pretty springs to mind.
It strikes me that a lot of people want to have a controlled end to an unendurable life, but it may not be that easy.
I fear being diagnosed with Alzheimer's (both my father & aunt had it, have now died) - because that is to know what is to come. But once a threshold has been passed, then I doubt that one is aware of one's dementia.
More difficult to bear would be something like motor neurone disease, having an active mind trapped in a helpless body.