I just had one of those random thoughts that happen to me once in a while. Must be the nicotine.
Menopause and Erectile Disfunction are two of the best things that ever happened to civilization. And Cosmetic Surgery, Botox andViagra are among of the worst.
Stay with me here.
As we age naturally, we naturally separate ourselves from our youthful passions, and obsession with vanity, popularity, sexuality.
If left to Nature, our inclinations toward them decrease, our ability to engage in them decreases and the fresh, youthful beauty that once attracted partners with which to engage in them, decreases.
While some American perpetual teenagers find this depressing—a disease that needs a cure—it is really graduation from self-focus to other-focus. When we are able to detach from the immediacy of our passions, from vanity, from self-absorption...we find understanding, of each other, of humanity, of history, of politics, of truth.
This is why the elders of so many civilizations have been venerated.
And rightly.
We celebrate the child becoming an adult. We should also celebrate the adult becoming an elder. We should do it personally, within ourselves, rather than feeling bad that we are "getting old". And we should reflect that new pride in age and wisdom in new traditions, that recognize and honor the citizen that willingly and proudly leaves middle adulthood behind to seek and share the wisdom of experience and age.
We abjure that phase of life at our peril. Both on a personal level and a societal one.
The Gunslinger
Joebama American citizens 2024 print
9 months ago
What you right is true, but the flip side is "old fools were young fools first".
ReplyDeleteThen again, good judgement comes from experience, and experience generally comes from poor judgement...
I get a woody when I confiscate guns from people, and then secretly sell them to my comrade, Hugo Chavez.
ReplyDeleteI'm getting more elder everyday, and though I do not know how venerated other individuals may find me, I'm enjoying the heck out of it anyway.
ReplyDeleteAm...I'm not suggesting we're not all fools when young. Good God!
ReplyDeleteJust that we should welcome the END of youth — and of middle age — as an equally wonderful, useful and valuable phase.
To quote Marie von Ebner-Eschenbach..."In Youth we learn,in Age we Understand".Just passing it on...
ReplyDelete"We abjure that phase of life at our peril. Both on a personal level and a societal one."
ReplyDeleteYou know it! But with modernity, since, and largely at the instigation of, Jean Jacque "exalt the child and all other 'noble savages'" Rousseau, principles, maturity, traditions and wisdom have been on the wane... and looking around us, it doesn't take much more than the briefest of blinks to see how terribly that has worked out.
I'd wager libtard see's mick jagger strutting around stage in his late 60's, or hugh hefner popping viagra's & playmates in his 80's, and thinks to itself cool!.
ReplyDeleteUnlikely he'll notice how well that rhymes with f...
Apologies on taking your original blog-posts for granted,Gunny...Duly noted,duly passed on.Well-written!
ReplyDeleteVan, I adore the lovely "itself". Choice usage. Wish I'd thought of it.
ReplyDeleteOn a personal level, I find your assumption to be wrong on so many levels... but it is the Scriptural side that intrigues me more. One of the "aspects" God points out about Moses is that "he lost none of the vigor of his youth" (when he was an "elder" of 120 years). This has been translated to "having no E-D with his age."
ReplyDeleteThe human body was not originally intended to "age", and therefor to lose none of its youthful "splendor". Our loss is due to the "original sin" of Adam (not Eve, since she was not the one commanded to not eat the fruit) and as "time" has progressed, we have not only lost our youthful vigor, but our understanding of "freedom", hence our current maladies- among them, youthful vigor and a need for Viagra and Cialis, et al.
Shy III
Shy: Well, I figure we have to deal with the situation we find ourselves in...and that is one in which we experience the effects of age.
ReplyDeleteWhatever the cause, them are the facts.
Not sure which "assumptions" you're talking about. I said we should accept aging with grace and gratitude, and revel in its gifts of wisdom and detachment from vanity.
They say youth is wasted on the young. I say old age is wasted on those obsessed with youth.
The young being young, foolish, selfish, self-centered and stupid is expected, and does not harm society. But the old acting that way deprives society of the wisdom they should be contributing to its betterment.
We deprive society of the benefit of our experience and ourselves of the dignity of making a valuable contribution to it.
There is a saying in my field where we ask if someone has 20 years experience or one years experience 20 times.
ReplyDeleteIf aging has any benefit, I believe it serves as a strong reminder of our mortality. Some accept that gracefully and stand prepared to meet their Maker. Others do not and become more bitter, resentful, cynical, selfish and self-centered as oblivion closes in.
I would make no blanket rule that age confers knowledge or wisdom. It just happens and I agree with shywolf as to why it happens.
Well said...but in saying this, I must admit that I'm old enough to know better, and too young to resist...it is my nature...which I believe, is a good thing. I feel young...I am involved...I am young.
ReplyDeleteHowdy, again-
ReplyDeletePerhaps "assumption" was the wrong word, but it's the one that came to mind.
But my thinking on "menopause and ED being two of the best things to happen", is that they don't happen because it's in God's Will, but in our fallen nature. (Hang with me here... I know I'm going to get theological, and I'm no theologan in any shape.) "If left to our nature," our inclinations for them wouldn't cease or lessen because that's not how we were created. In our original form, we were perfect, our physical and mental accuities limitless as God had meant them to be. (It's like the lifespan connundrum: our lifespans became shortened because of the "fall" of Adam, but that's a whole 'nother discourse.)
Elders are venerated because of experience, understanding, and all the BTDT, as well as our love for them, especially family members. Yes, we should celebrate age, young and old. After all, it's one of the few things we all go through regardless of status or gender.
So, in ending, it isn't that I disagree with you, just that my thinking on it is a little different.
Shy III
What's with this introspective crap. We want some good, old-fashioned Obama-bashing. C'mon Gunslingah, let's hear how conservatives are great patriots who, with guns and god's blessing, will save America; and how liberals are evil, godless marxists intent on destroying America.
ReplyDeleteThis site is supposed to make me feel good about myself without making me think. Let's get back to the program.
libtard, pretending to not be it, said "This site is supposed to make me feel good about myself without making me think."
ReplyDeleteOh please libtard, stop living down to yourself... it's... unsightly.
Van...nice catch.
ReplyDeleteWhat are you talking about? I'm one of you. I hate Obama, I hate libtards, I hate anyone who's not white and christian. I watch Fox News all day, except when I'm listening to my fave, Rush. (Rush gives me a woody.)
ReplyDeleteI sleep with my guns, Ted Nugent's my fave, and I'm thinking of moving to Arizona. Show me some love!
Ob joke: I always tell my wife that presbyopia is a survival adaptation. As we aged, our ability to see each other vanished at basically the same rate our looks did. We can't see each other so we stick together and raise the kids better. If she could really see me, she'd have left ages ago.
ReplyDeleteBut more to the point about "American perpetual teenagers" is that our society worships youth. Al Gore tells acne-pocked teenagers they "know things your parents don't". Yeah - they know crap like who's ahead on American Idol or who the heck Lady GaGa is. They know meaningless stuff that can help neither them or their world in any measurable way. Their mushy brains are full of information - not knowledge - worthless for any purpose at all. Not to mention the stuff they think they know that's false.
I don't dismiss young engineers at work just because I have clothes older than them. Sometimes they come up with great "why don't we just..." ideas. The other 99.9999% of the time, I tutor them in basics.
And get off my yard!
:-D
Laughed out loud at that last line! Classic crotchety old man stuff. Hilarious.
ReplyDeleteOtherwise, you said a mouthful...all of which I agree with, by the way.