By Glen Turner – Special to the Sydenham Current
Aging. Getting older. Becoming a ‘senior citizen’… by the way, I hate that term!
Much attention is being paid these days to ‘aging’. It’s in medical news, tax discussions, and… much advertising is dedicated to adaptive devices: stair climbers, anti-aging creams, hair colour for men and women, and so on.
It’s almost as if aging is not inevitable, and one has to do something to avoid getting, or at least looking older.
There are some things about getting older that are ‘different’, shall we say.
For example, much of my time with Doctors these days seem to include the ending ‘-ologist’.
Rheumatologist, opthamologist, cardiologist and so on.
Also, I used to hate being asked if I qualify for ‘seniors discount’.
Now, I LOVE getting those discounts!
There are quite a few stereotypes about getting older that I like to dispel, too.
No, I DON’T sit around listening to only ‘golden oldies’. I love music, and I enjoy a lot of the ‘new music’ – I don’t even have an oldies station on my car radio. Music is cathartic, and can take you back to important things in the past, but there’s always so much more to learn!
I DON’T have my pants pulled up to my chest!
I try to NOT spend time discussing aches, pains, medical problems and what’s wrong with kids today!
I don’t spend a lot of time sitting around watching TV and movies, although that seems to expected of the ‘seniors’.
Actually, I don’t spend a lot of time ‘sitting around’, period. I can’t do some of things I used to do, but many new things have come into my life that keep me moving.
The only thing that really bothers me about getting older is Income Tax.
I’ve contributed to Canada Pension since I was 14 and I still get taxed on my CPP.
I contributed to my Teacher’s pension plan for 38 years, and still get taxed on that cheque. And now that I receive Old Age Security (I HATE that term too!), Income Tax is taken off of that too. Grrrrrr…
The ‘senior’ years are awesome… and I luckily had a great example of how NOT to retire, my own father. After retirement, he went down the tubes very, very quickly.
I won’t be following that example, thank you very much.
