Opus 2024-394: Clickbait: Ten Things I Need to Know

I have been sucked in twice in the past week.  As a person who is getting older and feels it every day, I was attracted by the titles that talked about what to expect as you get older.  The first one claimed a revelation of 10 things that you could expect.  I think it was about 15 minutes long.  I got about three minutes into it before I got tired of the author spending so much time with verbosity and very little with the 10 things I could expect.  I think I actually got to number two.

The second was similar.  About the same length, and I got just about the same distance into it before I went on with my life.  It occurred to me that these people who are writing about old age forget that we don’t have as much time as we used to to waste on them sharing whatever it is they want to share.  I realize that they want to be important.  I realize that they think what they say is vital.  That’s one of the reasons I write this blog.  I have a delusion of thinking that what I say has significance.

The image of that second video that stands and out in my mind is the elderly gentleman trying to get up out of his chair and having to lean very heavily on his cane and other devices to get standing straight up.  I know the feeling.  I am there more often each day.  One of the things I also know is that I am there more often because I am so sedentary.  I have observed that if I move more than it is easier to move each time.  When I sit more, it is harder to move each time.  I noticed in my walking that when I go without for a few days that my strength goes down very quickly.  I can build it up again, but that’s a slow process.

I know we are individuals.  I know that each one of us responds differently.  I know that you can’t make assumptions.  Having said that, let me make some assumptions.  I think that one reason that we elderly get weaker and weaker is not just the fact that we are getting older, but that we are getting, shall we say lazier.  My wife has physical problems.  She has legitimate reasons not to get up and do things.  She often asked me to do things that she could do easily.  I really think it would be better for her if she would force yourself to get up and do them herself.

She doesn’t see it that way.  I will never find out if it’s true, because she will never get up and do it herself.  Besides that she likes to tell me what to do.

So keep moving.  Let your friends do what they can, but don’t get carried away trying to make them feel good by being helpful.  Get off your duff and if possible, do it yourself.

homo unius libri