Regardless of what "group" I am in, the definition of my classification as a senior citizen could remove the part on age. I say that because I have found that the majority of "young" people - those under 40 - stopped paying attention to anything I said long before I reached the age of 60. This, of course, does not refer to my children who stopped listening long before that.
To me, my age simply records the number of seasons, or moons, that I have walked the earth - or driven, flown, ran, or crawled over it.
They could also remove the part about being retired. Had I been able, I would have retired
fifty years ago, at the ripe old age of 17. I wonder if I would have been referred to as a senior
citizen if I had? Work, for me, was exactly that, work. Oh, there were times when I enjoyed it,
but those seconds and minutes were few and far between. I worked in the field of information
technology. It was an interesting field, and I owe a lot to having worked in it. However, my
problem was not the field I worked in, it was that I had to work at all. My perfect career would
not have been work to me. My perfect career would have been that of a professional appreciator.
It would have been my job to hire out to someone who was a workaholic and made a lot of
money. In their place I would go about appreciating the things they did not want to take the
time to appreciate, such as traveling to different parts of the world, trying different foods, going
to Broadway shows or musicals. It could have even been taking the spouse, or family, out for a
night on the town. Any and all of these things would of course be expensed, and added to my
hourly rate for such events. The amount charged would have been directly related to what it was,
and who all would be involved. Unfortunately, I thought about this after I worked for over 35
years, and by then I was old enough to know I didn't want to become involved in appreciating
anything with someone else's family.
Perhaps I am classed as a senior citizen because of the way I act. I have found, as most if not
all have found, that as senior citizens, each year that passes, it takes a little longer to rise from
ones seat, and several seconds, etc., to move after that. However, once upright and movement
has begun, it is pretty much back to normal speed.
As for looks, well, there's not a whole lot I can do about that. My hairline has receded back
to where I can no longer see it, except on the sides. There are still a few strands of hair that
show up as having colour to them, but I think most of that is in my eyes, and not in actuality. My
two year old grandson asked me recently where my hair was, and all I could think of was that it
was all over the places I've been.
As for the things I believe in as a senior, I will go into those over time as I add to my blog.
I am also going to write about anything that pops into my head, about the past, the way I have
lived my life, such as it is, the places I've visited over the years, and the things I did that
many others would not dare to do. I have lived on a day to day basis most of my life, and did not
listen to the doomsayers, or planners of futures. Irresponsible? Perhaps. Perhaps it will come
back to haunt me as my remaining time passes by. Perhaps it won't. In either case, I have not
many regrets to this point and can only look to myself should things turn out to have been the
wrong path. But then, when the decision was made, how would I ever know it was the wrong
path?
