Sometimes it is actually comforting to think that yep, I'm on the down slope now, and my rather disconcerting head on collisions with newfangled technology and attitudes will be no more. A silver lining in every cloud, though here the silver lining might be a tad tarnished. All this new stuff coming down the pipeline, all these new confusing rules and attitudes, well, soon it will be history, at least for me. I think back to when I was a little girl in second grade and the teacher spoke about the turn of the century. Seated at my little wood desk (now these desks are prized antiques!!) I calculated I would be 52 that year. and my mind boggled. Wow. 52. That was old, ancient. How perspectives do change.
The challenge? Well, I have thought much as to how to ensure that our great grandsons remember us. Videos and letters should serve that purpose well. as for the present there is nothing as refreshing and reinvigorating as seeing a bright and shiny new little one exploring life, enjoying the discoveries, even as the peals of their laughter reflect the music of the heavens. Next?
Marching on, I tackle the other tenses of time: past and the present. The future I must leave now in the hands. of the oncoming generations. Kids, we might continue to call them but adults they are and as such, adult responsibilities are upon them. The future is theirs - to build or destroy. We must return to the past and present. The past has become swath. in a rose-colored blanket of soft cotton and soft memories. For most of us, the pains of the past seem softer, not as sharp, cutting edged as they once were. That is a great gift to us for otherwise sanity would be even more challenged than it already is. Recently I learned that is called nostalgia bias. as we recall the past better than it actually was. Yes, that is good for our sanity.
However, we cannot avoid the present. The rather ugly present. The present we observe and evaluate. with skewed mind. According to Lee Drutman "Our brains are deeply attuned to possible threats and so we have a strong negativity bias in how we process the present.” Bombarded with crisis after crisis. in a never-ending stream of growing existential threat, how else are we to see the present as anything other than negative and threatening? What must we do? Use a backwards reflecting mirror and honestly evaluate what we have done and left behind and try to correct as much as much as we can. Difficult, Sisyphean in scope, but nevertheless, a must.
Now comes the fun part. How are we, the older, elderly generation supposed to do this, challenged as we are by the minutia of daily life. Our energies and powers of concentration are, of necessity, focused upon daily life and its challenges. Even as the minefields of life grow in number and difficulty. Frustration abounds.
Why do the automatic door openers we are supposed to push never work! Who had the brilliant idea of making doors so heavy as to beyond the realm of possibility of actually opening them; hence forcing us to wait until some younger, stronger person comes along. Why are items encased in plastic strong enough to withstand nuclear attack? Why are we instructed to tear here when it does not tear there?!
Drained of energy we now need reinvigoration. Food would be a good idea. Would that it would be possible. We grow hungrier and hangrier because we cannot actually open the containers of food. The lids apparently have been squeezed onto the containers by mighty machines and opening them by natural energy is shall we say, challenging to the hungry oldster standing there, frustrated, stomach growling. Even if success is achieved, beneath those lids are pieces of plastic fused into the container and can only be removed with giant tweezers or pliers or powerful hole punchers. The final touch is trying to open a plastic container. A full day job and not always successful at that. Oh well, fasting is supposed to be good for the body and good for the soul. In actuality, we cannot even purchase the items as cash money is scarce as ATMS are more complicated and open to scanning. Mostly everybody seems to be using some weird apps in order to pay their bills and transfer funds. And what the hell is an app anyway?
I would love to ask a bank teller for help, but bank tellers are an endangered species. So are human beings at the other end of a call. I might ask for help but am routed to a robot called a chat box, generally most unhelpful or repeating "I cannot understand you. Please try again.". Trying to track down a human means we are subjected to awful music, sometimes by hours on end, even as we are constantly reassured that our call is ever so important to them, and then we are ignored again. And by the way, what is with the language today? How is 'progressive' no meaning retrogressive? I am deeply troubled and still hungry!!
Yes, troubles of the present are myriad. My Alexa needs to attend obedience school. and my Siri is apparently off on a long, open-ended vacation. I have found nothing better to express my anger than the old but true banging on the table and. shouting at the screen or the pages of the print media. Nobody talks to each other any longer and I recently read that the younger generation wants phone calls to be scheduled. In the meanwhile, every time I put somebody on hold, I manage to lose them. Sometimes both of them. Yes, there are troubles of the present indeed. And I am hungry!!
Oh well, I will have to do my best. Hope that is good enough. Finally, folks, you younguns' out there, have a little patience with us, we old ones. Once we were you, and soon enough you will be us. Keep your humor intact and spare caches of pre-opened food items.
In four days, I will be a year older. Hmmm.
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Yitzy, two days ago your fellow 8th graders had their graduation ceremony. Each one spoke of you as they presented to the audience. Your goodness, your inspiration, remains and continues to work its wonders. We are so proud of you. We so love you. We so miss you.
Always. and forever. Always and forever.
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