A PRELUDE
In Yiddish, farshidn means “miscellaneous” or “various.” Instead of creating yet another blog to go with the ones
shown in the links below, “THIS & THAT” will appear now and then in The Ho-Ho-Kus Cogitator blog.
The topics covered will be as various and
sundry as whatever seems fitting at the moment, and at this moment “elderly”
seems like an apropos start, as you will read below.
WHO ARE YOU
CALLING ELDERLY?
According to Merriam Webster’s dictionary, “Elderly” is defined
as “being old, or rather old, past middle age.”
The World Health Organization’s definition differs a bit, to
read, “Most developed world countries have accepted the chronological age of 65
years as a definition of 'elderly' or older person.”
In Rhode Island
public agencies, elderly officially begins at 60. In Hawaii,
it arrives at 55. On a national note, the IRS Tax Counseling for the Elderly program
offers free tax advice to anyone 60 or older.
A New York Times story
called a 69-year-old woman elderly, and a story in the September 23 San Jose Mercury News, described the
tragic death of a woman who was killed when a car crashed into the club while
she was working out. The story said, “She died at the hands of an elderly
driver.”
It turns out that the woman driving her Mercedes Benz ML350
was 80-years-old, and was afflicted with “pedal confusion.” This is a disease
of the elderly when they hit the accelerator pedal instead of the brake.
This should not be mistaken for “pedaling intrusion,” when younger bicyclists
deliberately ignore red lights and cross traffic, as they exuberantly rush down
main thoroughfares without a care, and without really caring.
The trio of younger, male Mercury News reporters added reference to three other “pedal
confusion” stories to make readers aware that anyone over eighty should be
considered armed and dangerous, while driving a car.
When I was fifty and teaching journalism classes at a major
urban university, I would send my students out to observe and describe people
they saw. One teen-aged student read her observations which included, “An
elderly man sat on a bus stop bench, reading his newspaper as cars whizzed by.”
I asked her how old the elderly man appeared to be, and she
quickly replied “Forty.” I bent my body and answered her response with a raspy
reply, “Well, daughter. I must be ready for the old age home, since I am a very
elderly fifty years of age.”
Today, I am faced with the realization that I will soon be
far beyond middle age when I turn eighty in January. Elderly?
Who are you
calling elderly?
Find
my recent and semi-regular writings here on the new Ho-Ho-Kus Cogitator blog, and there are current essays here, on What I Have to Stay.
If
you like, add bookmarks for these writings.
When
you want to relax, try the calming exercise movements while learning Yiddish,
found in his book The Oy Way — Following the Path of
Most Resistance, by going here. Then click on YOU TUBE on
the left side, and you will begin to find di zakhtkayt —
tranquility.
No comments:
Post a Comment