photo #1194616

Told ya I wouldn't watch it, kept my word. For those of you who are perplexed about the elderly who sit in their outside chairs gently rocking, pausing, rocking again, then occasionally dabbing the corners of their eyes with a wellworn handkerchief, I'm going to enlighten you. When a day begins by finding out a second Presidential attorney was raided at the crack of dawn and had confidential attorney/client records and documents including his cellphone confiscated, but the dossier they were ostensibly there for was left behind, and ending with the President stating "We The People ARE the government", you'll figure it out. It's hard enough to deal with life without friends, even pre-pandemic. Families scatter. Kids get married. The nuclear family breaks up and moves away. People's lives get complicated by a myriad of factors, and the elderly are soon forgotten in the rat race for survival due to increasing costs, taxation, lack of freedom, and government intrusion into their lives. Then, that government squanders that tax money on socialism and those who refuse to work, forcing the inevitable tax increases that only make things worse. It's a wormhole from Hades itself. When you combine the above with the social interaction adage " Always let your company leave feeling better about themselves than the way they felt when they arrived", the problem becomes clearer. It's SO hard in these times to have a happy, tender, and positive outlook. Yes, you can obviously pray about it, but some people spend their whole lives on their knees and not enough on their feet doing what they need to to improve their conditions. We all know that the older we get, the sense of urgency to "cut to the chase" outweighs the social skills we used to have. We talk about the things that need changing, and the corrective procedures. Unfortunately, people don't care what you know until they know how much you care FIRST. We're brash and open. We answer questions truthfully instead of politely. We know what it's like to waste so much of your life on drivel. We know our time left is limited, and we're giving the condensed versions of everything devoid of embellishments. Alas, though, for that has people leaving feeling depressed and "down" which causes them to regret the thought of returning anytime soon. We know this. We get it. We've done it ourselves. Now, the cycle is coming full circle on us. So, with the societal ills of today and the complications it presents, what's to be done to solve it? We the elderly are the FIRST to tell anyone who listens it's NOT the government who's to be trusted. Unfortunately, though, there's nobody to listen to us. So, we learn how to walk outside, sit in our chairs, drink our coffee, watch the world pass, and commune with nature. We talk with the animals. We soak in the beauty of flowers. We see the new growth on the trees and bushes. We watch as the honeybees flit from flower to flower, and wonder why we never saw them do that so clearly before. We talk to the animals, and we're convinced they can talk back. The cycle of life's continuing, and we know where it ends, just not when. We remember the simpler times, and the joy of finding a refrigerator box and the resultant fort that grew out of it. We think back to our first date, our marriages, and births of our children, and the requisite tear escapes our eyes occasionally, requiring a dab from our well worn handkerchief. Sorry about the ramblings. I've gotta run. I've got an appointment with my chair and my squirrel friend, George. And my handkerchief.