atrophy of me - learnings

It’s Tuesday morning, 9am on October 4th. The plan is to publish the Howler Monkeys post this afternoon and have next week’s post completed by this morning… that is this post. I sat down with the intent of writing about one of two things; 1) My experience with my job search so far. (I have a great experience I'd love to share, but I think it may be too soon) or 2) My new love affair with Nuala O’phalen and her book written many years ago about an aging Dublin Women. (I've just starting reading her book, so I should really wait until I've completed it.) Instead I'm sitting here thinking about the feedback I’ve received over the last few weeks, and all that I have learned. I think it’s better to write about that.

First of all, I’m not one of those people who can sit back and say I don’t care what people think, because if I’m completely honest with myself, I actually do care. I care that most people like what I do and see value in it. I also care that people get along, are respectful to one another, are listened to, and make an effort to consider others perspectives. I try my best, but I know I don’t always exhibit that behaviour myself. I can get pretty passionate at times, and a few glasses of wine can always add to that passion even more. Here’s the thing though… atrophy of me is a public forum and I truly do want to respect peoples’ opinions. So, because I want people (you) to actually like me and what I do, I think it’s only fair I share a little about what I have learned from you. I know that with an attitude like that, I won’t get a lot of followers. I mean I’m not controversial enough. It seems to me these days you need to be polarizing and extreme to get any sort of attention. In the end this is not intended to be extreme, provocative, or polarizing. It’s intended as a discussion, and hopefully, a civil one.

I originally had a pretty good list of topics I would blog about when I started this whole thing, but as I said, I’m getting feedback, I’m learning things, I’m evolving (evolving is my most favourite thing to do). Some really great comments have been posted where people have bravely shared their own experiences; stories about true elderly issues, where my problems as a 50-year-old pale in comparison. I’ve been asked to consider the perspective of the youth who are finding it immensely difficult finding work in this horrible economy. The website isn’t getting a huge number of comments, but the comments that are posted are thought provoking, encouraging, wise and beautiful, and I thank you for that.

Because of your comments and your feedback, I am finding that in exploring ageism, I am discovering how completely ignorant I really am, and how serious and pervasive ageism really is amongst our elderly. And when I say elderly I’m talking about people who are fully retired, living on a fixed income, and are likely mid sixties and above. So although I think I may feel it now, I’ll feel it much more 10, 20, and 30 years from now if things don’t improve.

So let’s talk, and learn a little more about aging in general. This is what I’ve learned over the past couple of weeks;

Did you know that October 1st was the 2016 United Nations International Day of Older Persons (UNIDOP)? If I were really on top of my game, I would have posted this on October 1st when I read it. Now it’s almost two weeks later. I’m not exactly operating in real-time am I? Anyway, the UN website states the following and a little bit more if you want to check it out:

“The UNIDOP will take a stand against ageism by drawing attention to and challenging negative stereotypes and misconceptions about older persons and ageing.”

I discovered the International Day of Older Persons from a CBC article I found on Twitter, titled “Ageism is 'the most socially-ingrained discrimination,' says B.C. advocate”. It’s an interesting read and I agree with most of it, but it also states that even complimenting an elderly person about going to the gym every day is a form of ageism (ageism based on "benign kindness"). Sorry but I don't agree with that and here's an example of why. Do you see the image of the lady above? She is doing the crow pose. It's a pretty difficult yoga pose. That women deserves a huge amount of accolades for accomplishing that, especially when people 30 years younger can't do it. I bet if you asked her she would agree. I could be wrong, but I know I would be pretty proud and boastful if it were me.

Within the above article, there are a few more sub-articles related to aging. One of the sub-articles is on Ageism in Health Care. Some of the statements in it threw me for a bit of loop:

“The country's elderly demographic is set to double in the next 20 years” – that means many of us are going to be part of a very large group of people. Hmmm…does our government know this is happening. Are we prepared for this? Who’s paying for this?
“A pervasive culture of discrimination against elderly patients makes geriatrics a less attractive field for new doctors”. “We need about 800 geriatricians across the country”. “"There are only 200 geriatricians in Canada at the moment."
"There's a misconception that as soon as you retire … it's like an expiry on a food product" – That ugly comment was made by Greg Shaw, a director at the International Federation of Ageing. He was however making a point, and I personally believe it to be true. There is something about remaining in the work force that creates a perceived viability and relevancy, but how does one go about changing this perception? I wonder…
There is one other learning I would like to mention since I started doing this. As some of you may be aware, atrophy of me is now on twitter. Megan has done a very good job of seeking out like-minded twitter feeds and connecting to them. Much of what I’m learning on aging is through of those Twitter feeds. Our connection to all of these age related posts means I’m now being targeted as an elderly person. What this means is I’m getting many online slot machine/gambling ads. I have to tell you; it’s thoroughly pissing me off. So these low-life companies are targeting seniors and asking them to sit in their homes and gamble? I have a personal twitter account which is not associated with atrophy of me. Not once was I ever peddled by a gambling house. Disgusting!

And finally, to lighten things up, did you know that “Middle-aged parents are now more likely to smoke weed than their teenaged kids”? This little ditty came from the Washington Post and get this…

“And it's not just middle-aged folks who are indulging more often. Since 2002, regular marijuana use among Americans age 45 to 54 has jumped by nearly 50 percent. Among those ages 55 to 64, it's jumped by a whopping 455 percent (no, that's not a typo). And among seniors, age 65+, monthly marijuana use is up 333 percent since 2002.”

It looks as though baby boomers are turning to marijuana in lieu of more traditional prescription medications. In fact, they stated that pain killer use is going down. That’s a good thing isn’t it?

Just so you know, the Marijuana article was found on a great website called; The Advantages of Age. Check it out. It seems to be a good one.

That's it for now. I know I'm coming to an abrupt end here, and I really could say so much more, but I'm trying to keep each post around 1000 words without dragging on too much and boring you all to death. I read that 800-1000 words was the optimal count for a blog so I'm trying to adhere to it.

Enjoy your week. And if you're interested in further information on articles similar to the ones I've mentioned above, please feel free to follow on Twitter.

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