Posted on 04/14/2025 2:20:29 AM PDT by Cronos
In 2000, I published a book called “Rules for Aging,” a sort of how-to guide for navigating the later years of one’s life. I was 60 at the time and thought that I knew a thing or two about being old. Twenty-five years later, I just finished a sequel, which reflects my advice for growing very, very old. (I have been doing a lot of that lately.) It took me 85 years to learn these things, but I believe they’re applicable at any age.
1. Nobody’s thinking about you.
It was true 25 years ago, and it’s true today. Nobody is thinking about you. Nobody ever will. Not your teacher, not your minister, not your colleagues, not your shrink, not a soul. It can be a bummer of a thought. But it’s also liberating. That time you fell on your butt in public? That dumb comment you made at dinner last week? That brilliant book you wrote? No one is thinking about it. Others are thinking about themselves. Just like you.
2. Make young friends.
3. Try to see fewer than five doctors.
4. Get a dog.
5. Don’t hear the cheers.
6. Everyone’s in pain.
7. Listen for Bob Marley.
8. Join a gang.
This advice is meant for men more than women, because women are always part of one group or another.
Men, on the other hand, are solitary, static things. Generals without wars, astride iron horses.
9. On regrets.
They’re part of life. Learn to live with them.
10. Start and end every day by listening to Louis Armstrong.
“West End Blues” or anything, really. I won’t tell you why. But you’ll thank me.
(Excerpt) Read more at nytimes.com ...
if 85 is very very old, what’s this author gonna call 90, 95, 100 or more?
maybe this year will bring the author a new view, that it’s all a choice on how you see things or feel etc at any age young or older.
one more thought. I read a book years ago titled “It’s not about you, it’s about God” written buy a woman who had a major challenge in her late teens, or early 20’s,, which totally changed her as she realized the book title answered her many questions.
If this author started each day with that thought, than many of his listed things would be easier to figure out, or not even on the list because he’d be wiser and realize life is about learning who God made you to be (usually stronger and better able in ways than we could ever imagine) and He has things for you to do with your time that you will never know unless you get on board with Him. Any other way to live is selfish and apart from God.
1, 3 and 9...
The rest? Meh...
No use for Bob Marley. Ever.
I listen for Jacob Marley.
1. Nobody’s thinking about you. (If you’re lucky, the important people in your life are thinking about you — as well as themselves, which is human nature.)
2. Make young friends. (If you can find them. Everybody we know is old.)
3. Try to see fewer than five doctors. (Maybe three max.)
4. Get a dog. (Cat.)
5. Don’t hear the cheers. (Don’t know what that means.)
6. Everyone’s in pain. (Pretty much.)
7. Listen for Bob Marley. (Why?)
8. Join a gang. (Yes. Women’s gangs are critical for mental health.)
9. On regrets. ... Learn to live with them. (You’ve got no choice.)
10. Start and end every day by listening to Louis Armstrong. (Listening to, and singing (loudly) along with, Christian music.)
“Mankind was my business!!”
— Jacob Marley
Another idiot from New York writes a book that will be unpurchased and unread by most, and quickly forgotten by all. To have made it to age 85 without a personal relationship with God through His Son, Jesus...now that’s worthy of a discussion regarding how to find hope and joy and salvation and freedom and peace in one’s old age.
Our earthly life is but a blip in the realm of eternal life...a mere pinpoint in a timeline we can barely fathom. We each have an eternal destination, and we each need to accept Jesus as our savior, in order to have the true knowledge that we will spend eternity in heaven, before and with God Almighty. There is only one alternative eternal destination...to which most are headed ...and that one is eternally painful, hot, dark, lonely and brings the dweller such thirst that can only be imagined... without any hope of relief. The time is short. Choose wisely. Salvation and hope may only be found in Jesus.
Amen and amen!
Which hope we have as an anchor for the soul.
Grace and peace FRiend
It works for some people, but I hate jazz. Some of Dixieland is OK, when/if it has some structure to it — like When The Saints Go Marching In — that’s pretty good. Otherwise, to me it sounds like the musical answer to Tourette Syndrome.
I will agree that almost no one thinks about you. Or even cares about you. But hopefully your family does. Maybe a very few select close friends too.
I think a better way of putting it is: You are not the center of the Universe. Though it does seem that way because we are the center of our own lives.
I also doubt that listening to Bob Marley will do anything for me.
Your spouse, kids, and grandkids absolutely do think about you.
Start every day with God. He created you. He gave His son to die for you so you have been purchased with the shed blood of Jesus that can cleanse you from all sin. Give Him first place today. No guarantee that all will be well, but guarantee that He can be your peace and LIFE through the day.
Give yourself to Him; ask Him to reveal Himself to you - and He will. Even the apostle Paul was asking to know the Lord more near the end of his life: Philippians 3:8 - 12
We all understood. This is from the man who raised three grandchildren after the death of his daughter after all.
I just go here (80) and I’m already sick of it.! :(
“How to Be a Happy 85-Year-Old”
Impossible. Only if you are totally senile and detached from reality.
Having a 23 year old girlfriend who likes to cook and do housework should be added to the list......I’m still looking.
If you aren’t “old” yet, lose the weight, cut out the sugar, and get outside and move.
I’ve seen enough octogenarians to know that doing that being sick and miserable is a horrible way to spend the last decade of your life.
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