The best things about being older

For me it's the calm and the perspective. It's the freedom from expectations. It's feeling free to say any damn outrageous thing that comes into my head (well, unless it would be hurtful to someone, in which case I keep my mouth shut).

It's all the sweet memories I have of people and places and travels.

It's the indescribable joy of hugging my grandkids and seeing them making their way in the world.

It's the deliciously wicked fun of taking a younger man into my bed and showing him a few tricks.

It's having a longer range view of things ... looking at the fucked-up state of the world and knowing that this too shall pass.

It's hearing young children squealing and playing in the sunshine without a care in the world, and thinking that they are the ones I should be learning from as much as the other way around.

It's going for long walks out in the desert and feeling the hum of life all around me.

It's having my daughter phone up and chit-chatting with her for two hours about everything and about nothing, just glowing in the pleasure of each other's company.

It's so many things I can't write them all.

 

It's being the only one to respond to your own thread ...:rofl:

 

.......having the patience to wait LOL


PAX

 

PAX, I'm way too old to have patience ...

 

plenty of time for waiting once we're dead

 

One of the things that I really like about [disability insurance] old age is that I don't have to be anywhere that I don't want to be. My mood at the moment tells me where I should go and what I should do. I don't really have that much patience either, if I did, I'd be a doctor. LOL.

PAX

 

teeth dont hurt so much when they pull them out..

 

Hey Granny, we have a few in common.

My grandsons are too big to hug anymore. You know, a guy thing since they were 14. But we can talk as adults now.

 

Knowing when to go with the flow and when to swim upstream.

 

Oh Shale! You're never too old for hugs ...

And knowing which minnows are edible and which are fishermen's lures.

 

When you take a stand, you know it's durable and based on decades of experience and consideration. Young hippie types tend to be more willows in the wind than oaks. We all were. Flexibility is a wonderful youthful trait. It helps the looking and learning phase of life. As we age, we owe it to others and ourselves to be firm, positive and unwavering - leaders. Why? We are the guides, the sages, the wisdom. If all we have to offer our youthful followers are wishy-washy softball answers to life's questions, we might just as well be cliche' black light paintings or gooey lava lamps - warm, a dim light, entertaining but not enlightening.

 

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The best thing about being older for me is, having the confidence to know what I know - and being open to learning what I don't

 

watching the younger folk acting like they know everything there is to know

 

also watching nieces/nephews/kids learn...sometimes they ask the funniest questions

 

I am not afraid of cops and cop power any more...not like when i was 16

 

Well, I dunno. In a lot of ways, I'm way more flexible now than when I was younger, perhaps because I see more options now.

I frequently see young people on this site saying things like "you should ... " or "you must ..." when replying to questions about lifestyle, and I cringe. Even if perhaps "you should" is appropriate, they aren't necessarily the ones to be saying so.

I also see their knee-jerk reactions to news items or to various government actions. They tend to see those kind of things as much more black-and-white than I do.

"Flexibility" includes the ability to see and appreciate that the government is NOT always wrong, and it's NOT all "society's fault" that things are fucked-up in your world.

Well, that's exactly what I mean. I think you mean well, but to be frank, you're not the one to dictate what sort of answers I or anyone else gives, nor are you the arbiter of "wishy-washy-ness".

 

Not dictating friend, merely providing my opinion. No offense intended.

 

This pretty well says it for me-I might add (for me anyway) I also finally know when I DON'T know.

 

This may sound like a no-brainer, but I find I have a greater appreciation of seniors as I age. I don't know exactly how I used to view them, but now I look at an elderly person's face and I see...decades of experience and a treasure trove of stories.