We’re all on the
downhill slope to Death
I don’t have a
problem with it
I would like to die.
I cost too much
And the world is going to change
even faster
Attention all you pending Old Farts
Everybody In the 55+ Club
It is time
for a serious change of topic: time for some old fart advice to any and all of
you readers, who are at or near retirement age. You have no idea what you are
facing if you plan on living to a ripe old age. I’m sorry to inform you that
you are facing a rotten future full of shit that you have not considered. You
are going to go through the process of ageing in a time of increasing cost and
reduced resources and it is going to be no fun for anyone. I hope I am over
exaggerating the future hazards but preparation can minimize or deflect some. Consider
this a tutorial in survival: a lesson in reality
As a
commingling problem, now Doctors are having a problem with euthanasia, and
Alzheimer’s is just coming into bloom and here come the new herd of Boomers.
Let’s start
this by you just retired, or will, doesn’t matter when and you figure on
lasting until you’re lets say 75 and, if you’re lucky, maybe even a few years
longer. Let’s consider the problem in five years chunks.
In the
first five years you’ve got the problem of adjusting to a fixed income
lifestyle, the more bucks the better and this is not easy. Suddenly you’re a
nobody and you don’t count. Nobody wants to hear your opinion! You’re useless,
nobody wants you, nobody needs you and nobody is going to be left to give a a
shit when you die! If you’ve been paying attention, you have come to realize
that friends and relations have been dying around you and your social life is
drying up. Friends can’t come over because they’re busy with their own health
and survival problems. If you are a typical 60 year old with ten family members
left for support, they are probably living in ten separate cities and no real
support at all.
If you’re
single you’re lucky, you don’t have to care for anyone and watching a loved one
wither and die is no fun! You can’t stop it. It simply takes over your life and
the chains of love make you watch her suffer! There is no option
OK we made
it to seventy and now we start in with the physical deterioration crap. You get
weak and you get tired. You’re joints start to ache and you lose your wind.
Maybe you’re stuck in a wheelchair and then there’s the old fogy’s home when
you can’t take care of yourself. Have you got any idea how much it costs for an
assisted living facility today. It’s beyond my means: what’s that cost fifteen
years down the road? Doesn’t matter. Money doesn’t control where you go, your
physical condition does and you’re a helpless passenger.
The Bible
says a life span is three score and ten, and that is all anyone
should want: Particularly now that Alzheimer’s is coming home to roost.
The years
past seventy five are the most to be feared. They all involve losing control of
your life and progressing towards a life in a bed. What is worse: a life of anonymity?
Sooner or later it happens, somebody dies and you are alone. At that point you
vanish. If you died there is not one solitary soul left who will give a shit
much less shed a tear. You will not be missed and no will remember anything
you’ve done. You might as well have never been.
You are
doomed to a life dependent on strangers to feed you and clean you, perform the
necessities of daily life and keep you alive as long as possible. The final
insult to you is the possibility of a stroke or some other result like a coma or
Alzheimer’s that prevents you communicating with the external world and you are
trapped inside your own head. Then one day it happens: you die in your sleep
and you either wake up to the Heavenly Choir or you don’t wake up. End of
problem. No one should be afraid of dying: the peril to be feared is how you
get there.
Euthanasia
That is what I want to leave you readers
with today.
Something to think about.
Docs Offside on Physician Assisted Suicide
Look at the ageing pole I painted.
Look at yourself
Ask yourself “where you want to get
on the misery scale?”
Then ask yourself what if the option
of euthanasia was available?
A simple
request: and a surprise pill in my evening meds some day this week. Thanks.
Not so
terrible is it.
More to
follow
Blaine Barrett
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