Oh, it does my heart good to get such positive reactions!

In Australia I have found that the older people are seen as old-fashioned, passe, finished, and we use the word "aged." I refuse to use this word. I say "ageing." Ageing is a process. I am ageing from the moment I am born; whereas "aged" is a past tense, something finite. I don't feel one day older that when I was in my 30s. I see a few wrinkles and so what! They are irrelevant.

The people who are enjoying their old age - most are those who are not conscious of their age, they are too busy enjoying their life, their friends and their interests, so that they're not ageing inside. Their bodies may be ageing, but their spirit isn't ageing. But that's not a perception we have of ageing.

We still have the perception that as you grow older, everything falls apart, gravity clamps on to your earlobes and you go into steady decline.

I think it's great to go back to study as a mature-age student - what a role model you are! And I also think it's equally good to have younger people visit the elderly. Both can indeed benefit from such an
encounter.

Thank you for your inputs - much appreciated!

I was young..now I am old and I would never ever want to repeat those awful years that I crossed to get where I am now. Old is great. It was a rough trip .Now I have reached a plateau where ,God willing, tomorrow will be as good as today. No more vanities, no more struggle, no more DEPENDANTS,Hooray! I can be as selfish and as self willed as I want because no one can growl at an oldie, it is just not cricket!
AGE! bring it on.

The biggest regret I have with each passing day is that the more one learns, the more more one realises how much there is to learn. Sheer logic tells me that, no matter what age I am when I turn my last page there will still be so many pages I haven't even looked at yet.

As to chronological age? I think I am being honest when I say its not a consideration. Just as my friends come from all walks of life and all creeds, they are also of differing ages: the youngest currently being 13 and the oldest 85. Its simply not something I ever think about. And as to me myself ageing? I truly don't think that is going to happen. I simply don't have the time.

Regardless of what happens to my body.

One theory put forward by paleo-anthropologists for the supemacy of homo sapiens over homo erectus is the latter seemed to have a greater longivity of the former, about 40 years for erectus versus 70 years for us. The sapien elders held a suite of knowledge that allowed familial clans to survive in response varied environments. They had seen more and knew what to do. [both spiecies have similiar brain capacities]