Tag: Aging

Probation Officer on the Perspective of Youth

Sheila missed the action of the drug trade. She was having lifestyle withdrawal. She still went to parties and was still dating an up-and-comer in one of the neighborhood gangs, but she worried that her peers didn’t look at her the same way anymore. Her boyfriend said that her holding down a day job reflected poorly on him. It made him look like he wasn’t a good earner, like he couldn’t provide for his girl.

You want to tell young people that the things they care about now won’t matter in a couple of years. They’ll make new friends, meet new people, see new places, gain and lose a half dozen jobs before they’re settled, but this insight, like so many others I’d hoped to bring to the job, was tied to my own experience, to class if not race, and hopelessly inapplicable. Most people on probation and parole in the Seventh Ward didn’t go away to college. They rarely left the city limits for any reason. When you don’t go far from home, the local ecology is the only one you care about.

The Second Chance Club: Hardship and Hope After Prison
Jason Hardy

Rock and Roll Rasputin – Holocaust Survivor to Rolling Stones Insider

He was born in Krakow, Poland, in 1923. When he was 15 years old, Hitler’s forces came through his Jewish neighborhood, torching homes and shooting people in the street. Freddy, along with his entire family, was rounded up and sent to a nearby concentration camp.

He attempted an escape one night, and it worked. He left his family behind and made his way to Russia. But when the Communists got hold of him, they shipped him to Siberia. They then sent him to England during World War II, because the Allies needed translators in London. Freddy spoke English, Polish, Russian, German, and Yiddish.

When the war was over, he returned to Poland to search for his family, but learned they were dead. The house he grew up in was no longer standing.
Freddy had to start his life over.

…

The more I got to know Freddy on the Steel Wheels tour, the more I understood why he needed to be there. People labeled him a dope pusher, star-fucker, bullshit artist, and dirty old man, but he was a lot more complex than that.

“Hitler killed my family,” he reminded me one night. “My mudder, my fadder, viped out. But vot can I do about dat now? Sit in de house and cry? Vait for my blood clots to kill me? I gotta live, baby! I gotta prove dey couldn’t finish me off.”

The groupies, glamour, and fast pace offered Freddy a vibrancy he couldn’t find anywhere else. While folks his age were playing shuffleboard, Freddy was hangin’ with the Stones. Every line he snorted and every groupie he laid was an affirmation of life and a proclamation of survival. “Look vehr I am today, and look vehr you are, you Nazi cocksuckers!” Every time he danced at a Stones concert—and man, you should’ve seen him—it was like he was dancing on Hitler’s grave. “I’m gonna dance not just for me, but for all my relatives who can’t.”

Under Their Thumb: How a Nice Boy from Brooklyn Got Mixed Up with the Rolling Stones (and Lived to Tell About It)
Bill German

Freddy = Freddy Sessler. From chapter 25 – rock and roll rasputin

Weight Training and Aging, ChatGpt on

Can you list some of the benefits of weight training, in particular for older people

Certainly! Weight training, also known as resistance or strength training, offers numerous benefits for older individuals. Engaging in a regular weight training program can significantly improve the overall quality of life for seniors. Here are some specific benefits:

Increased Muscle Mass: As people age, they tend to lose muscle mass. Weight training helps older adults maintain or increase muscle mass, which is important for mobility and daily activities.

Improved Bone Density: Weight training places stress on bones, which can increase bone density and reduce the risk of osteoporosis and fractures.

Enhanced Metabolism: Building muscle through weight training can boost metabolism, making it easier to maintain a healthy weight and manage body fat.

Better Joint Health: Weight training strengthens the muscles around joints, providing better support and reducing the risk of injuries and arthritis-related pain.

Increased Strength and Balance: Weight training improves overall strength and balance, reducing the risk of falls and enhancing stability in everyday activities.

Improved Insulin Sensitivity: Regular weight training can improve insulin sensitivity, which is important for managing diabetes and preventing metabolic disorders.

Enhanced Mental Health: Exercise, including weight training, releases endorphins, which can help alleviate symptoms of depression and anxiety. It also promotes better sleep, leading to improved overall mood and mental well-being.

Better Heart Health: Weight training, when combined with cardiovascular exercise, can contribute to better heart health by reducing blood pressure and cholesterol levels.

Pain Management: Weight training can alleviate chronic pain conditions, including back pain and arthritis, by strengthening muscles and improving flexibility.

Increased Independence: By improving strength, balance, and overall health, weight training helps older adults maintain their independence and continue performing daily activities without assistance.

Social Interaction: Participating in group weight training classes or exercising with a partner can provide social interaction and support, reducing feelings of isolation and loneliness.

Cognitive Benefits: Some studies suggest that regular physical activity, including weight training, can have positive effects on cognitive function, potentially lowering the risk of cognitive decline and dementia in older age.

It’s important for older adults to consult with a healthcare provider or a fitness professional before starting a weight training program to ensure it’s safe and tailored to their specific needs and limitations.

Growing Old Together – You and What You Fear

..here he was on Broadway, his hair iron-gray, his stare wild, his walk unsteady, his hands flailing at the air. His clothes were out of the men’s shelter, and his face so ill-looking you wanted to put him in a hospital for a month before we even discussed the situation.

My mother looked curiously at me. “Why were you afraid of him?” she asked. “You could knock him over with one hand.”

“Ma, he didn’t look like that twelve years ago. Believe me. She continued to stare after him as he shambled down Broadway, bumping into people left and right.

“You’re growing old together,” she said to me. “You and what frightens you.”

Fierce Attachments
Vivian Gornick

Proust on Adolescence

But the salient feature of the absurd age I was at – an age which for all its alleged awkwardness, is prodigiously rich – is that reason is not its guide, and the most insignificant attributes of other people always appear to be consubstantial with their personality. One lives among monsters and gods, a stranger to peace of mind. There is scarcely a single one of our acts from that time which we would not prefer to abolish later on. But all we should lament is the loss of the spontaneity that urged them upon us. In later life, we see things with a more practical eye, one we share with the rest of society; but adolescence was the only time when we ever learned anything.

In the Shadow of Young Girls in Flower (In Search of Lost Time)
Marcel Proust

At what moment did you realize “Fuck I’m old”?

At what moment did you realize "Fuck I’m old"? from AskReddit

tamedreckless I’ll add mine since it was the reason I thought to ask this question…. Last week I sneezed and it threw my back out.

–eDgAR– If it makes you feel better, I was 19 when that happened to me. I was so embarrassed I told eveyone I was helping my mom move something heavy when it happened.

ThisIsToMarkResearch They played Green Day and The Offspring on the “classic rock” radio station.

dangnabbitdamnit When I see popular reddit posts mentioning celebrities with weird ass names and I’m like, who the fuck are these people?

philman132 This isn’t just age, it’s also a product of the internet era. It used to be that everyone watched the same shows on the same few channels or listened to the same few radio stations, or whatever, so everyone knew the same celebrities. In this age where the monoculture has been shattered, everyone is watching different shows on Netflix, YouTube, etc, it’s so much easier to find niches, no one knows the same set of celebrities anymore.

Walshy231231 I’m 21 and in college, and I feel like there’s a new whack ass celebrity every day It’s just the internet I think

leafsblow When I mentioned Mr. T to my wife’s friend and she had no clue who I was talking about.

maxdarmawan Did you pity the fool?

RRuruurrr I was teaching a class last week and told my audience that they may need to MacGyver a solution if they come upon a certain problem. No one knew what that meant.

pcaltair I was born in 1999 and, while I’ve never actually watched it, I’m well aware of what that means.

Ienjoywearinghats I had to explain to someone how we used to organise meeting up before cell phones became a thing. That and having to use encyclopedias and other books to complete homework. I’m mid 30s. The reactions I was getting, It was like I was explaining how to split an atom using two sporks.

mlc15 I was literally just talking to my friend about that. Neither of us could wrap our heads around how you’d plan anything? If someone didn’t show up to your meet up did you just assume they couldn’t make it? How could you even call if there were a change of plans if you weren’t at home to use the phone?

Límites / Boundaries – Borges Poetry

Límites
Hay una línea de Verlaine que no volveré a recordar,
Hay una calle próxima que está vedada a mis pasos,
Hay un espejo que me ha visto por última vez,
Hay una puerta que he cerrado hasta el fin del mundo
Entre los libros de mi biblioteca (estoy viéndolos)
Hay alguno que ya nunca abriré,
Este verano cumpliré cincuenta años;
La muerte me desgasta, incesante.
—de Inscripciones (Montevideo, 1923), de Julio Platero Haedo

Boundaries
There is a line by Verlaine that I will not remember again.
There is a street nearby that is off limits to my feet.
There is a mirror that has seen me for the last time.
There is a door I have closed until the end of the world.
Among the books in my library (I’m looking at them now)
Are some I will never open.
This summer I will be fifty years old.
Death is using me up, relentlessly.
—from Inscriptions (Montevideo, 1923) by Julio Platero Haedo

Poems of the Night: A Dual-Language Edition with Parallel Text (Penguin Classics)
Jorge Luis Borges

Saul Bellow Interview on The Connection

Saul Bellow’s “Ravelstein”

“Saul Bellow is on every critic’s top ten list. John Updike has called him our best portraitist, he is a mentor to the British writer, Martin Amis, and his Chicago has become as familiar as Joyce’s Dublin. He has received three National Book Awards, the Pulitzer Prize and, in 1976, the Nobel Prize for Literature. You could read Bellow’s new novel “Ravelstein” for clues about his real life friendship with Allan Bloom, the controversial and flamboyant author of the 1992 bestseller, “The Closing of the American Mind.”

You could also read it as a Saul Bellow meditation on friendship, writing and dying. Abe Ravelstein is a larger than life philosopher at the University of Chicago, who chain smokes, lives extravagantly, and is as much of a gossip as he is an intellectual. Before Abe dies, he asks his friend, Chick, to write his biography. Saul Bellow’s “Ravelstein,” on this Connection.”

The Connection, Hosted by Christopher Lydon

Listen / Download

Thanks in Old Age – Walt Whitman

Thanks in old age – thanks ere I go,
For health, the midday sun, the impalpable air – for life, mere
life,
For precious ever-lingering memories, (of you my mother dear
– you, father – you, brothers, sisters, friends,)
For all my days – not those of peace alone – the days of war the
same,
For gentle words, caresses, gifts from foreign lands,
For shelter, wine and meat – for sweet appreciation,
(You distant, dim unknown – or young or old – countless, un-
specified, readers belov’d,
We never met, and ne’er shall meet – and yet our souls embrace,
long, close and long;)
For beings, groups, love, deeds, words, books – for colors, forms,
For all the brave strong men – devoted, hardy men – who’ve for-
ward sprung in freedom’s help, all years, all lands,
For braver, stronger, more devoted men – (a special laurel ere I
go, to life’s war’s chosen ones,
The cannoneers of song and thought – the great artillerists—the
foremost leaders, captains of the soul:)
As soldier from an ended war return’d – As traveler out of
myriads, to the long procession retrospective,
Thanks – joyful thanks! – a soldier’s, traveler’s thanks.

Over 40 and Happy – Suggestions


People who are 40+ and happy with their life, what is your advice to people in their 20s? from AskReddit

QualityKatie
Relax more. Don’t get angry over little things.

yeahwellokay
I was a raging alcoholic in my twenties and thought I would never recover from it. I never found a real job using my first degree or my masters. Part of it was because I was always drunk, part of it was the job market at the time.

I went back to school in my thirties and found something I like a whole lot more. Now, I’m married, nearly ten years sober, and have a great job.

My point is, if you end up on the wrong path or don’t like where you are, there’s always time to turn around and change it. Too many people just assume they’re stuck where they are and stuck with the issues they have.

chilledheat
I’m not sure who said it but once I read this online:

“Don’t cling to a mistake just because you spent a lot of time making it.”

And i think about it all the time. Kind of relates to what you said.

NoahNoodle
Wow. This helped me a whole lot with my anxiety. I’m a 20yo school dropout because of mental illness. I have big dreams though and the thought of never achieving them makes me even more sad. But your post helped me realize that it’s not too late to turn my life around. I can go back to school after I’ve been in therapy, I can still achieve my goals.

i_am_a_toaster
It is never never never too late! Go see a doctor- find some coping strategies- alter your life choices- don’t let anxiety rule your life. I have been diagnosed and once I figured out how to live with it, all sorts of things became more…. possible. I didn’t go back to school to finish my degree until I was 28- but the key thing to remember is it is NOT over for you, and you can get there. One thing at a time.

Denaris21
I am 40 years old and I have three pieces of advice for anyone in their 20’s

Accept that perfection doesn’t exist. Your relationships will have problems, your car will break down, someone else will anyways have a better phone, a newer car, or a bigger house than you, no matter where on the social ladder you stand. Constantly chasing perfection will keep you permanently stressed. That doesn’t mean you should not try to better your life, just know that if you expect perfection you will never be statisfied.

Pay attention to your diet and health. I have been working out at least 4 times per week since my mid 20’s. I am fitter, healthier and look younger than almost everyone else my age

Don’t stop doing the things you love. Even though I have a wife, kids, job etc. I still make time to play video games, draw, write stories, read comics, play basketball, listen to music, etc. There is no reason to become a miserable old bastard!

Girls who took notes using 50 different colored pens, where are you now? Do you still continue to write using all those colors?

Girls who took notes using 50 different colored pens, where are you now? Do you still continue to write using all those colors? from r/AskReddit

Novachey
Unfortunately not allowed in the line of work i chose. So now i use 50 different colored Post-It notes. Improvise, adapt and overcome.

SixtySaints
If I may ask, what line of work are you in that prohibits the choice to use different colored pens?

Novachey
I work in an office, so it’s sort of a silly rule. However, it does look more professional, and blue/black ink is just better for scanning/printing purposes.

whtbrd
I used to work for a CPA/professional auditor who advised me to keep purple pens on hand for original signatures. She did.
She said you’ll always be able to tell at a glance if you’re really the one who signed it, since almost no-one will have a purple pen around to fudge your signature. and no-one will kick up a fuss since it’s basically a blue pen.

Boob-on-Boob-Action
Unless my grandma decides to go on a fraud spree. Purple’s her favorite color and the ONLY color she ever writes with.. so beware

Quotes on Aging

Do not resent growing older, it is a privilege denied to many.
Proverb

Grow old along with me!
The best is yet to be,
The last of life, for which the first was made:
Our times are in His hand
Who saith “A whole I planned,
Youth shows but half; trust God: see all, nor be afraid!”
 Robert Browning, Rabbi Ben Ezra,

We don’t stop playing because we grow old. We grow old because we stop playing.
George Bernard Shaw

They called it “Classic Rock,” because they knew we’d be upset if they came right out and called it what it is, namely “middle-aged-person nostalgia music”.
Dave Barry

“a thing will not really live unless it first dies” – C.S. Lewis quote

“This is, I think, one little part of what Christ meant by saying that a thing will not really live unless it first dies. It is simply no good trying to keep any thrill: that is the very worst thing you can do. Let the thrill go—let it die away—go on through that period of death into the quieter interest and happiness that follow—and you will find you are living in a world of new thrills all the time. But if you decide to make thrills your regular diet and try to prolong them artificially, they will all get weaker and weaker, and fewer and fewer, and you will be a bored, disillusioned old man for the rest of your life. It is because so few people understand this that you find many middle-aged men and women maundering about their lost youth, at the very age when new horizons ought to be appearing and new doors opening all round them. It is much better fun to learn to swim than to go on endlessly (and hopelessly) trying to get back the feeling you had when you first went paddling as a small boy.”

Lewis, C. S., Mere Christianity