An actress is suing, because some one printed her age.
Advertisements tell women they can take ten years of if they use their product.
I have never been much good at telling another's age.
But both men and women, seem to want to stay, Botox and other help, young forever.
I am 66 years old, feel forty, but parts of me are about 100.
I care little about changing the reality's of life death and aging.
Can we avoid anything by pretending we are other than the age we are?
While I live I grow, and hopefully learn to.
But like me my body ages and in truth lying to the world will change nothing.

Dear Belly,

Unfortunately our society does not take
into account individual differences, and instead treats
all people over a certain age as though their age is
their single most important characteristic.

Therefore the subordinate status of people over a certain
age, like that of racial minorities, has been assumed
to be rooted in biological characteristics,
specifically, it is held
that the mental or physical abilities of people over a certain
age - are so diminished that they are unable to
play a full role in society and may therefore be excluded from
significant participation. The reliance on negative
stereotypes about the minority concerned is therefore
maintained.

For example it is widely believed that people over a certain
age are not such productive workers as the young. Actually,
older people have better job attendance and productivity
records. There are a variety of beliefs about the
typical personalities of older people -
beliefs that either ignore the vast differences among
people - for after all, individuals grow more different not
more similar as they age, or have no basis in facts whatsoever.

Ageism against older people is often subtle, but it is pervasive.
Take television commercials. Almost all adds present youthful,
attractive, active people. When older characters appear, they
are likely to have health problems and be promoting health related
devices.

Advertising, like so many other aspects of the media
often reflect the "fountain of youth" theme that courses
through our culture in which people are encouraged to believe that
creams, soups, lotions, colourings, vitamins, diet pills,
exercise machines, sports cars, or whatever will make them
look like a young adult forever. It is therefore no wonder
that some people prefer not to say how old they are. They
don't want to be pigeon-holed into a stereotype image of
something they're not.

cont'd ...

Again, apologies for the typo - It should be
soaps - not soups, in the last paragraph.

It's fascinating how Western culture seems to devalue older members of the community. Like infants, older children, and anyone else not directly participating in the "workplace" they appear to be relegated in many cases to instituionalised care.

Most cultures if viewed in a traditional perspective revere their elders because they recognise they are the receptacles of wisdom in the community...strange how our society doesn't conform to that perspective.

Belly
There does seem to be a pre-occupation with vanity in recent times but preoccuption with beauty has always been around (those darned biological imperatives again). Technology makes beauty more accessible or the illusion of beauty in some of the amazing claims of skin creams. Maybe caveman/women also celebrated new technologies like the invention of the comb and how it made their hair look so much more radiant and silky. :)

Technology means people can access the latest cosmetic procedures even though many come with a small risk. Even men are going in for hair transplants, plastic surgery and hair dye. Why either men or women respond to these pressures I can't fathom but each to his/her own.

Lexi
My mum always said soup was good for you. ;)

No way Hosay, it's disgraceful all the way for me, thanks.

I had far too long in middle age gracefully bringing up kids & paying mortgages to be prepared to be that way at the end.

The hair is white, most of the teeth are in a landfill somewhere, & even the eyebrows are starting to go white, but I've still got it, what ever "it" is.

Yes Lexi I've got the cars, but not for how they make me look, but for how they make me feel. They aren't mid life crisis things, I'm far too old for that. They are both convertibles, I'm having trouble getting into low cars with roofs these days, but once in I'm one with the world.

There's the modern fast one, that gets me past Ma & Pa Kettle, on their way into town in their modern shopping trolley, but there's also the good one. Not quite as old as me, & slower than Ma Kettle's shopping trolley, but oh how it feels, just like the old days.

I have fitted modern high performance brakes, & tyres, & for this summer I weakened & fitted air conditioning, but it's still an old sports car.

It is fun sometimes when I park, & see in the rear view mirror, a couple of chicks checking out me & the car. They pull in their stomachs & throw out their chests, only to sag back to normal, when I get out & turn around. Still there's quite a few Ma Kettles, & lots of kids who admire my old lady.

My son offered to fit power steering, but hell, with that, I would need Lexi's exercise machine, or a gym membership. With my old fashioned steering I can have my fun, & get an upper body workout simultaneously.

So sorry Belly, & Lexi, I'll still be pumping CO2 into the air for a while, but then, someone has to feed all those trees in the Boarder ranges national park, don't they. Perhaps you should "come up & join me some time", as the famous lady said.

Dear Pelly,

My mum did the same. Soup was very much (and still is)
part of our eating habits. Chicken broth cured all ills.

Dear Hasbeen,

Keep on doing what you're doing - sounds good to me!

Dear Poirot,

There are still cultures that treat elders with reverance
and respect. Although sadly ours doesn't seem to be one
of them. You'd think we would be growing into our wisdom.
We should be hungry for our wise women and our wise men.
Think of the knowledge that could be passed onto us - they've
seen the cycles of life and death. They have the power to
teach through the depth of their understanding and they have
the power to bring forth a new and better world through the
depth of their vision - if only we'd let them. Afterall -
they hold the candle of illumination for all the world to see.
They should be honoured and revered. They should be allowed
to shine!

The trouble is Lexi, that old timers disease sets in, & the old farts can't find the on switch for their light.

Now, where the hell are those car keys?

dont let it concern you ol buddy
recall how much we lamblast youth

or ignorant people..or single mothers
[or bankers..or po-lies..or unionists..or liberals or greenies

mate all my life i have been reviled
as a dutchie..or biker..or druggie..[mate we can dwell in the negative]

but the reality is we are all
being forced into the ideal russion
who works when the party says jump..who conforms..to the party line

who dont make waves
and dare not resist us all being turned into peons

so much more to the topic
but its all..about making us conform
like sheep..blieving the party line..believing tax without representation is fair..

[as long as its only put on those
we hate/revile..or resent..ie smelly smokers..or rich miners..or lol poluters..or dole bludgers..or

well certainly not you
you know..just them nipps and them natzies
or the commies or them towel heads..of abo getting the avo

You sound like a bunch of people in a geriatric home.

Oh how wonderful, Soup! How are the Azaleas going? How much better was it in the good old days. They don't make em like they used to....

Did I hear the word sixpence? Is John Farnham on the radio?

Hohohoho. Tinker's Cuss! I like the cut of your jib.

The world is about Sex. With a side dish of sport. I remember an Alas Smith and Jones sketch where the newspaper of the future was a piece of cardboard with a pair of tits on the front and the soccer results on the back.

Old people have wrinkly bodies and have performance problems. So nobody gives them much thought.

Sorry, it's the way things are.

Sure, you can go on about old people that still rub their wrinklies together, but everybody knows men over 40 with a sex drive are 'Dirty' old men, and women that age who even still want a good 'rogering' are desperados and a little bit sad.

Sex, Youth, Beauty, Fame. It's what the worlds about. It's the currency. The dogs bollocks!

Poirot, I tire of the institutionalised oldies and young-uns gear you trott out, though I do have to agree, but in all I think it's more a symptom of being hard to market to those demographics, as they're not obsessed enough with sex. I mean, what do you do to sell a product to old people, or really young people. Have you see those retirement fund or funeral fund or Car insurance for oldies adverts. They sound like they're trying to sell things to retarded people.

Yep, that's what old people like; Slap on the corny jokes, talk slowly, and try to envoke images of the world you lot keep banging on about, when soup was an interesting topic of conversation.

It's the 1950s version of...
I mean, like, oh my God, did you, like, totally see that?
Oh, wow, you've got to be, like, kidding!
Totally.
Helloooo?
So I think, you know, like, whatever.
Shut up!
Totally.

Hoully you never fail to take my breath away, and you are nearly right.
Ageism exists, even here.
A few brief visitors, from the shallow end of the IQ pool, think telling me to return to the bowling green is giggle worthy.
I like hasbeen love my car am, and always will be a petrol head.
Climbing the toughest remotest track,sitting on the very top of a rock, just looking down at the view is bliss.
Vanity? well I dress and act as I wish, but never want to be other than me.
Some of those very old boilers, rich but featherless, in make up so deep it must be put on with a trowel?
We live longer, but are not the young studs some think they are.

Houellie,

You know something?...I get tired of me banging on about institutions too (even though I'm right :)

Dear Hasbeen,

Many go through life not having a clue
where their light switch is.

Dear Poirot,

Bang away. Take no notice of what someone's
posted. If you called them a wit, you'd
be half right.

My last effort here may have offended some.
So be it, I am only human.
I admire those who refuse to age by retreating, but stay active.
But, surely we all know some one like this,aged dolls, both male and female 70 trying to look 30 are just ugly.
Some show their age verbally, or in printed words.
We are told some as they age become a bit fixed and the fun side of life is replaced, hence grumpy old men.
And very few of us would not in their teens thought they knew far more than they did.
Even that 20 to 30 time in our life saw some silly thoughts we no longer hold.
Interesting that we live longer age slower than our grand parents.
But I have not yet found the need to hide my age.

Dear Belly,

I'm glad that you don't feel the need to hide your age.
Ageist bias is revealed in people's attitudes toward
their own age.
Middle-aged people, often understate
their ages, for they know that the years devalue people
the older they get. This is especially true for women,
who, because they are socialised to place so much
importance on their youthful looks, are more devalued
by advancing age than men are. In "lying about their
age," people demonstrate their own ageism.

Generalisations about the abilities of older people
are very risky. For example, an older novelist may
produce a masterpiece despite failing eyesight; an
older athlete may remain physically strong yet
suffer lapses of confidence and concentration; an
airline pilot may be expected to give up flying at
sixty, yet go on to become a politician whose skills
are admired at seventy-five, and so on.

The experience and the meaning of aging differs not
only from individual to individual, but also from
one social and historical context to another.

Being an adolescent today is very different from
being an adolescent fifty or a hundred years ago.

For example, Glen Elder in a study of how people
reacted later in life to their experience of hardship
during the Great Depression found that those who were very
young during the depression had no memory of earlier
prosperity, so they regarded the economic improvements of
later years as a steady progress from adversity to
affluence. But their elders, who had known better times
before the depression; to them, it was a sign of a
possible cycle in which good and bad times might follow
one another. So, decades after the depression, the younger
ones assumed that the badtimes were gone forever, but
the older ones were still wary of the economic future and
were incline to "save for a rainy day."

Therefore, I guess the meaning of any stage in our life
course is a fliud one, in which people's expectations
for themselves at a particular age depend on social
assumptions unique to that time and place.

Lexi yes every word.
I found in the first few posts I had over generalized.
And it is true most of us do on this subject.
The Gold coast QLD got me started, I can not get the idea it is an old lady/man trying to look young.
A quick look will see every one wants to be something else younger older richer and an old lady trying to hide it is a bit off.
In fact any sea side town with night life will look like that some nights.
And yes some extremes exist any place.
One thing helping me, I could not in truth find any age that saw me more or even less happy than I am now.

Dear Belly,

I can't complain about life either.

I've been given the gift of a second grandchild.
My two mums (my own, and my mother-in-law) haven't
fallen off their perch's recently -(so far so good).
Christmas is just around the corner (I do both Christmas
Eve dinner, and Christmas Lunch, at our place for the entire
family - which we all enjoy). And next year - I'm planning
an overseas trip. As long as I stay healthy and keep fit, I'll be
happy.

Always love a good bollocking post from Houllie. One starts reading from the first sentence and you know it is Houllie from the get go - in his indomitable style.

Great Lexi we are going to miss you while away.
Yes Holley has grown on me too.
Bet that gets me a kick .
A thing about life, excepting the things you just can not change is a must.
And I have, as we all do.
We , well most of us have deep mud we have climbed out of behind us and pain too.
My Christmas will be a good but quite one ,about ten in total.
We once sat 37 at our tables and had the we do not eat much family arrive at the last minute too 5 more.
Life is not always good but if you can get pleasure out of the little things, hearing the birds sing as they rip the flowers on your trees to shreds you have it made.
Shopping day! I will observe the aged warriors trying to find happiness by returning to days they do not yet know are behind them.
And know why I am happy in my skin.

Nice sentiments Lexi and Belly.

Pelican,
Houellie will "right browned off" to know we are all so fond of him : )

bolloc-king
what a strange word

i know what a king is
but what aare bol-locks?

it it time to get all xmassy
[christ messy][when xmass isnt even the commercialistic day on which he was born...]

what was that xmass topic last year
that ended when i got suspended

ohh it dont matter
goodwill and a piece of earth
to the lot of ya..

its all about the expensive/exclusive presents
not the free god given gifts right?

what about presence of mind
[its ok i dont mind]

but if you do have a mind...
why do you have mind for

why spiritual mind
not materialist brain

brawn is king
darn its begging to loot a lock light xmass
its beginning to loot a lot like xmass

beginning to look
a lot*
like
christ mess

[nope im not feeling it yet
must go spend some credit..on the dis-credit cards
25%..now there is an intrest rate you can take..from your banker ursuror

OUG yes ok Christmas is now about money.
And in truth it is only Christmas for some.
Yes your God was not born on that day, but my one, if I had one was.
A pagan at heart I will be eating prawns , yes the English one too, never know why my mob will not let us eat Australian.
A tip, long ago from the bad spot credit can take some.
I cut up my credit cards.
Stayed home for two weeks eating out of the food stored in cupboard and freezer.
Reentered the world cash in hand.
Never again bought other than cash.
Hurt some times but put 20% away, so if it was needed I had it.
Hard, only till you train your self but rewarding.

Hi Belly,
Have returned to the olo after a few busy weeks, mmmm....this ageing discussion is very interesting.
Like you I am 66, and four months to go before I turn 67....I wear every year with pride, I have been a hard worker for most of my working life, and have enjoyed it. Together with my Husband, we have raised three kids, (a roller-coaster ride with the transition from kid to teenagers), and five (soon to be six) grandchildren. We devoted our time to our kids, and now that they are scattered across Australia, we are enjoying a peaceful life, doing what we want to do instead of what we have to do. We please ourselves, we wear every grey hair with memories, and the fact that we become invisible when we start sprouting grey hair is a bonus. We please ourselves what we do and when we do it, whether that be camping, gardening, art lessons and Uni studies, we can become self indulgent for the first time in our lives....Old age? 'tis only numbers after all, I reckon it is one of the best times in our lives.
Cheers my good friend,
NSB

Truly good to have you back NSB I was thinking about you yesterday.
That happens to us all how?
Yes me too just wandering out the back, sitting under my bottle brush trees and hearing the birds is great.
See no use in being other than me.

Dear Noisy,

I add my voice to Belly's - Welcome Back!
Your comments are always so positive
and a joy to read.

Aging Gracefully....definition.....there is not such a thing:)

"one may get a job pushing your face into dough to make gorilla biscuits".....but doubt that will be the case.

Age is something most don't often think about(less you don't have a life) and human demise or looking at our own morality is a hard think=g....when one has the time to reflect:)

Death does not scare me at all(it comes to all)......my time will be my time, and no one can take that away......may my re-pressers hold me down.....highy unlikely:)

My time will come, and like the great Budda said, "in my world of be being, I am only just at the beginning"...meaning time is short:)...so dont waste it:(

Belly, don't worry too much my friend....death will come for you too:)

"Budda was just a man, however he understood what the meaning's of life's to his understanding were...... and some may think to search for an enlightenment that will be it "a waste of time", but some say....and Budda also said...."No life is a waste of time"...and I agree:)

all the best.

CACTUS