Totenkindly
@.~*virinaĉo*~.@
- Joined
- Apr 19, 2007
- Messages
- 52,184
- MBTI Type
- BELF
- Enneagram
- 594
- Instinctual Variant
- sx/sp
What's it called? Kidsplaining--when a youngster tells an oldtimer what it's like to be old?![]()
I'm not William's age, but he wasn't old enough to be in my parent's age bracket either. I don't really view myself as a "youngster" or a "kid," thanks.
My posts (and the articles that I linked) talked about age-related infirmities as one of the things that causes a male boomer to question his life and sometimes off himself as a result. And "age-related infirmities" is a eumphemism for precisely things like Parkinsons, Alzheimers, quadruple bypasses, cancer, emphysema, organ replacements, and so on and so on--the kind of debiltating stuff that turns you from "breadwinner" into "burden on the family."
Why is this even a point of contention? It's blatantly obvious. There's a bunch of stuff that can happen as we age, and he was in his 60's. Heck, I have a relative dying of colon cancer right now, and one of my parents is dead, and have had some health issues myself that only seem to increase in severity as I age.
I didn't know that Williams had Parkinsons, precisely. But for example I knew that he had pretty severe heart problems and took it hard. The Parkinsons would be another nail in that particular coffin. Boomer suicides are precisely about that sort of thing. Some prospect that causes their life to change suddenly: The end of youth, and the start of a colder, grayer, more dependent existence.
Certainly that's going to be part of it -- but it's the generalized part that every person experiences. I was making the point that Parkinson's is pretty much an Achilles heel style of infirmity for him, in addition to whatever other "old timer" infirmities you'd like to trot out. For me, ever since I started having memory issues ten years ago, I've had to wonder how I would face losing my ability to think clearly / make mental connections, or how I would take physical infirmities that impact my ability to play music -- because those things are of special importance to me and things I have built my identity around. Yes, I might get diabetes or have heart congestion, and those things would also impact quality of life, but they wouldn't hit me in the place where I have my IDENTITY constructed. Kind of like Mencken getting aphasia... for a bricklayer, maybe not a big deal, but for a writer with sharp wit?
Anyway, what did you think I was talking about--the onset of baldness or gray hair causing boomers to commit suicide? C'mon, the boomers aren't *that* vain.![]()
humor or pretension -- you make the call.
That's precisely what I meant when I spoke of a "stripping-away and letting-go."
Maybe you're not understanding what I said because I was talking in generalities and not identifying specific illnesses or financial problems or whatever. But at least in my own mind, I was talking about precisely the kinds of things you brought up in these latest posts.
Actually, you're the one who seems to be viewing this as purely age-related physical issues that result in some gross generalized decline that every human experiences, while I was specifically pinpointing an infirmity that hits someone right in the core of their IDENTITY in addition to all the other age-related issues that you feel the need to point out as if everyone here is too inexperienced to be aware of them.
Oh well, I'll drop the subject for real this time. You young people don't need to hear about old-age issues. Your time will come soon enough. In the meantime, enjoy your youth.![]()
I was just being courteous and relaying information earlier when I clarified for you that he had Parkinson's, I wasn't attempting to suggest your concerns about his age weren't relevant. I just think for the reasons above that this was likely a significant issue beyond all the obvious age related issues you were concerned about. If you think it isn't, that's fine. I don't have any further point.