Who is an elder?

[Valley Oak]

Could a person consider him or herself an elder at age 47?

Edward


Hi and Welcome to the WaccoElders category!

This category is for people who consider themselves elders/seniors as well being conscious/progressive. You are welcome to post anything here that is specific to that stage of life. It needn't be local and we welcome like-minded elders from around the globe!

Commercial posts (https://www.waccobb.net/forums/showthread.php?t=19899) are accepted from Commercial Supporting Members (https://www.waccobb.net/forums/showthread.php?t=19843).

Anything to do with later stages of life are welcome. I could imagine threads around senior co-housing, senior discounts, AARP and other senior organizations, assisted living, (alternative) medical care, staying active, travel, service referrals, parent care, insurance, social security, exercise partners, support groups, etc.

So please post something and join us!

[Barry]

Could a person consider him or herself an elder at age 47?

EdwardSurely you could consider yourself anything you like! :wink: If you want to post to this category something to do with elderhood, you are most welcome too.

[Zeno Swijtink]

Could a person consider him or herself an elder at age 47?

Edward

Only if you are able to negotiate this flow-chart!

https://www.mayoclinicproceedings.com/images/7810/7810sg-fig1.jpg

[babaruss]

Glad to know I am not to be considered an elder. Must be because i am too dysfunctional to even care to read that flow chart !!

What a pain in the butt to see yet another bag to be stuffed into during the course of my life.
Beatnik, hippie, wino, hobo, low life no goodnik , and now elder.
Not going for it..not now not ever.

I recycle every bit of junk mail that comes my way re...aging.
Everything from AARP, to guarenteed access to life insurance for those over 65, gets recycled unopened.
I don't care to be entertained, or piss away my tiny income on dining out, so discounts are as useless to me as tits on a boar hog.

I did not relate well to those elderly folk I met during my one foolish foray out to ascertain the value (to my life of course) of a local senior center.
My God..better to die, and be done with it than to go there to eat terrible food, play bingo, and sing songs that suck.

The last elderly person whose company I enjoyed was an 85 year old woman I had picked up hitch hiking (a couple years back). She had just arrived on a sail boat from the Azores ( she hitched a ride on that boat) and was sporting a tattoo on her neck she had just had done in S.F.
Last I saw of her was where I left her at the Larkfield on ramp ... she said was going to catch a ride to Mendocino.
Bless her for showing me that being elderly is an dangerous illusion.

My step dad is Native American...once he turned 65 he became an elder.
He thought it was hillarious that all his life he was just a roofer named Harry, but now he was a freakin' elder.
He wanted to know where those guys came from who all of a sudden, and out of no where, decided to look him up, recognize his Native American heritage, and label him an elder in the tribe.

I think people make too much of the idea that being an elder means anything except to the old goat who has managed to make it this far in life.
I'm sure there's a bit of short lived personal triumph there...until Alzheimers kicks in, and the poor dear forgets all about it.

I like the inscription on an Italian tomb which was meant as a caution to arrogant youth. It has a death's head ,and the words: "As I was you are..As I am you will be".

Russ... definitely feeling curmudgeonish about this subject.


Only if you are able to negotiate this flow-chart!

https://www.mayoclinicproceedings.com/images/7810/7810sg-fig1.jpg

[AnnaLisaW]

F#%! the flow chart! Russ has given us an excellent example of what being and "Elder" means. (Not him necessarily, but definately the old woman in the story. :wink:)

I think being an elder is that time when we stop trying to tell our kids how to live and start living for ourselves whether it is perfecting our favorite cookie recipe or starting a carreer as a sky diving instructor. As elders, we come to terms with our own mortality and start cherishing every day as the gift it was meant to be.
Oh, and I totally agree about the local senior center. Most have great programs and are a blessing for the community, but not for me, thank-you.
Blessings, AnnaLisa

[versa3]

I remember my mother looking at me when I was just under 30 and telling me that she felt just like I did on the inside, but when she looked in the mirror she could not believe the wrinkled woman who was looking back at her. I have recalled that incident many times over the last two decades and wonder if that is the deciding moment at which we become 'elder'?! Perhaps knowing enough to share yet still seeking answers qualifies me for elder status.......
The folk singer, Tom Hunter, wrote a song that addresses this perfectly;
"Yes, the ad said my lines would just disappear,
Like magic erase where I've been.
Better the lotions themselves disappear
And the lines that advertise them.
'Cause the lines on your face have storeis to tell
Of a life full of laughter and tears.
When you've spent all your life growing your lines,
Why would you want them to just disappear?"

Or maybe it's those very lines that I see now when I look in the mirror that
qualifies me for the elder catagory? :2cents:

[DeadwoodPete]

My sister says that at a certain age, memory becomes a team sport.

Deadwood


Could a person consider him or herself an elder at age 47?

Edward

[StormDancer]

Surely you could consider yourself anything you like! :wink: If you want to post to this category something to do with elderhood, you are most welcome too.

An elder looks at a person with a lined face and grey hair and says "How beautiful!"
-ALW