Tomorrow is my birthday.As usual on that fine morning cards will come through the inbox to remind me that am 21 with wishes of fortune and good health which ll make me think that it's time to settle down,look after my health,'put aside childish things',took life more queitly-and accept the fact.
But is it a fact?'What nonsense!'Birthdays don't mean a thing unless you give them a meaning.The great German psychologist,George Groddeck,'the wild analyst' as he called himself,was wiser. He points out that in the course of a single day,any day,at one moment you are a baby,at another an adult,or teanager,or senior citizen.This apply to the so called young as well as to the adult.Just notice how you feel,how you act,how you think,how you speak in one short hour,and you ll see how you leap from one part of time scale to another without any intemediate stage.
So don't just classify yourself with the 'has been' and leave it at that:if yov do,your imagination,your self image,will see to it that you are indeed old.
People have a saying 'be your age!'But how can you,if your age keeps varrying as Groddeck says,and as you know is true?If 'be your age' means acting like an old man or women then it's sheer suicidal stupidity.if it means merely 'dress suitably to your age'why not simply say that?
One women as result of an emotional shock,she lost her reason and still for many years believed herself to be a very young women.As result she kept her youthful look!
What is your picture of old age?Rigidity?The loss of mobility;stiff joints;fixed opinions;the loss of the fullness and the savour of life?You know very well you dont want these things.Why, then,do so many of us calmly accept them.
There are psychological explanations for our passivity,our negative attitudes.But that does not mean we need always acquiesce,why we should deliberately put ourselves on the side of the side of the enemy.Try fighting him.
Something has gone wrong with you physically?Don't just say 'it my age',see a doctor about it.Do what he tells you.
Try asking yourself a few questions, and ket us try to find better answers to them.
1.AM I USING MY AGE AS AN EXCUSE?
There are so many things in full life that ask for little effort.There is in every one of us 'a lazy streak' that doesnot like effort and does not like having to adapt to changed circumstances,even to seize opportunities. That lazy streak is always for an excuse to opt out of things that call for that effort.And what better excuse can it find than age?
Many pathetic old people can be found,pathetic just because they have availed themselves of that excuse.
As Ben Sweetland tells us:
'age and an idle mind go hand in hand.An active mind is youth mind.And a youthful mind will keep your body younger much younger than if you dwel on thoughts of age,which you ll do unless,unless your mind is occupied with a constructive thoughts.So if you ar refusing life on pretext of your age,make quite sure that your not using your age as an excuse.
AM I USING MY YEARS AS AN EXCUSE TO LET MY BODY GO TO PIECES?
It is so easy to sit in a chair and watch the telly, for instance,and let your muscle grow stiff with too long sitting in one position.Perhaps you feel you have a right to sit still or to lie in bed after all those year of hard work?But do not use moderation even here.You must have heard of those fakirs who out of mistaken piety hold a limb in one position for so long that muscles atropy stay rigidy evermore.Perhaps you condemn them for the folly which you are also doing.
I am not stggesting that you should suddenly take up weight lìfting or boxing,but you can see to it that your muscles get sufficient use and are regularly streched and flexed an relaxed so as to keep them supple.
Try to stand tall-walk tall and think tall.Gravity is always trying to pull you down towards the ground,dont let it have it way
"It is not how long,but how well we live."
"Older people often express their sense of personal inadequacy through condemnation of the younger generation-whether for its lack of morals,or thrift,or devotiön to duty " -Dr.Smiley Blanton:TTFN
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