Gratitude 79

I am very grateful that since receiving my first pension payment in my bank account last weekend that I am now officially old.  I don't feel old, neither do I look it.  Even though younger people have given me their seats on the bus, today it didn't happen.  The seats were offered to older women, some of whom seemed younger than me.  I might have appreciated the offer of a seat, given that I was carrying a big umbrella and a bag of groceries, but the bag was light and I managed to comfortably lean by the back door.  I did have a seat by the way but the elbow of the fellow next to me kept getting uncomfortably close to my rib cage while he was playing with his little tech toy and other seats were occupied.  I am also well aware that I am likely in better shape that a lot of people half my age (this you are hearing from a guy who walks five to ten miles a day).

Even though I am now safely over sixty (sixty-one, if you must ask, Gentle Reader, and it is rather better than being dangerously over sixty) I am not exactly a Boomer.  I am from a rather different cohort, also known as Generation Jones. We were born between 1954 and 1965 and a lot of us have not known the privileges or the excesses of our slightly older siblings, the Boomers.  We are the early precursors of Generation X.  This is what Wikipedia has to say about us:

Key characteristics assigned to members are less optimism, distrust of government, and general cynicism

also

The generation is noted for coming of age after a huge swath of their older brothers and sisters in the earlier portion of the baby boomer population had come immediately preceding them; thus, many Generation Jones members complain that there was a paucity of resources and privileges available to them that were seemingly abundant to those older boomers born earlier. Therefore, there is a certain level of bitterness about and a "jonesing" for the level of freedom and affluence granted to older boomers but denied to their generation.

Or, let me put it another way:

The Boomers gave you Woodstock; we gave you...Punk Rock.

I was only eighteen when I became independent but already all the low-hanging fruit was gone.  We were entering into an epoch of economic uncertainty and all the goodies that my older brother's generation had enjoyed were already swallowed up by the time I was of working age.  This, I think, is the real reason why my brother did rather well in life and I was left with the crumbs.  He was also a ruthless competitive bastard with a nasty violent streak (so sue me, Rick Greenlaw.  I will sue you right back for assault.)  My brother, who is three years older than me, and I have not seen each other in almost twenty years and I am okay with our never seeing each other again, by the way.

So, now I am old, and enjoying the kind of robust good health that might see me past my one hundredth birthday, if I'm not hit by a truck first.  Not that it really matters.  I take care of my health, through a healthy diet (following a dinner of home made gallo pinto with black beans, brown rice, cheese and miso, broccoli, and a sliced tomato, I just enjoyed a dish of fresh mango), rest, exercise and maintaining a robust involvement with life.  Even though poor, I enjoy a decent quality of life.

I have no idea what to expect over the next several years before I trundling trundling into the death zone.  I spent much of my youth taking care of seniors with compromised health and the terminally ill.  I often wondered how I would age, what would happen to my health, will I become a cancer statistic, or will it be Alzheimer`s?  Will I always enjoy good vision and hearing?  Will I avoid the worst ravages of arthritis?  Heart disease?

It really is one day at a time.  Absorbing all the beauty of life that surrounds and fills me.  And giving back to life by serving others in the community, by making my life a healing influence in society.  The other details will be taken care of.  They always are and they always will be.  Forgiving others is also a good start.  I could even begin with my brother.  Maybe tomorrow.  Today?