Our friends from IN arrived here yesterday. Gary is seemingly getting worse, as far as his being cantankerous, difficult, and unpredictable, while yet, between those displays of seeming anger, there is kindness, fun, even laughter displayed. We have always known him to be a "difficult" person, though. Vonda, his wife of 40+ years is a sweet, easy-going, quick to laugh lady, who puts him unhesitatingly "in his place" when needed. Like in public........ So, I've weighed my own changed attitudes as I've gotten older. Can it be that we all experience certain changes in mental attitude as that inevitability of either becoming unable to care for ourselves presents itself, or perhaps thoughts of dying, tend to reshape our ongoing thought processes? Frank
I think it does but hopefully it won't take hold and change a person permanently I've seen that happen and will do me best to avoid sinking
Frank a great bit of satirical humour about getting older and what comes with aging I think we can all appreciate it.
I can definitely identify with this topic...especially, as i become increasingly older. Certainly more cynical, by nature...and, thus, the tendency to become less tolerant towards various things...which, by contrast, while i was much younger, and, therefore, more naive...taking things for granted, and accepting things without question. It all really depends on the particular experiences which one has had throughout one`s life, though. If one has endured a lot of pain and suffering, for instance...at the hands of others, then, there is this real internal battle to feel forgiveness and compassion towards other sufferers. It can be achieved only through constant positive thinking...
I guess we all age differently, I am not sure if your basic personality alters that much, maybe you become more of who you really are? My experience is that though always being reasonably tolerant and easy going, I have become more so. Since I hit 70 life has become much easier over the past 5 years or so, I would like to think that it's down to wisdom or enlightenment, but I think it's just my body chemistry that has changed. I have lost the feelings of excitement and anger, but also disappointment and the fear of death as well..... I have been lucky so far in having good health and a pretty easy life so I can honestly say at 75 these are certainly the best years of my life so far. "......Can it be that we all experience certain changes in mental attitude as that inevitability of either becoming unable to care for ourselves presents itself, or perhaps thoughts of dying, tend to reshape our ongoing thought processes?..........." I wouldn't want to become dependent and would hope I simply fade away in my sleep one night....
As I've gotten older I find I do not have as much patience, when I'm tired I do get irritable, and I don't like last minute changes in plans thrown at me. And I do not do well with drama at all. I think that is because there was so much drama in my younger years that now I just like peace and serenity.
I have always been easy going and love life. My annoyance is who are these people trying to cause trouble sometimes diberately to hurt others. No need. I do tend a shot to the bough if need be My family and friends are the most important people to me. As I have aged I tend not to circulate towards negativity.
We have to remember that each of us is a totally unique and one of a kind individual. So, as we age, we "act our age" differently". Our health comes into play some, but we end up expressing our years as only we can. I have become more out spoken, in old age.
I've always been the type of person that looks at things in a "reality" way. Sometimes when someone tells me something, I may tell them "look at it this way". They will then look at me and say "true". One thing I'm not, naïve! I get along better (on the phone) with my wife's sister and wife's girlfriend than I use to. My SIL can be/is very "naïve" and that still bugs me, but I handle it better now than I use to. Unfortunately, my wife's brother doesn't and will very seldom talk to her. When I met my wife, her and this girlfriend were doing a lot of things together, but that abruptly stopped when my wife met me. My wife simply felt that I was much more interesting to be around than the girlfriend. And, after we moved away, their relationship really went south. Now, wife OTOH, can get upset at traffic (slow drivers) and when her laptop messes up. Can't do much about slow traffic, except go around them. As for the laptop, getting a new one.......solves that. Wife's memory isn't as good as it use to be and I have to remind her often, sometimes too often, about something. I told her this AM, I'm going to get you an entire box of Sticky Notes for Christmas! We both laughed about that. My wife still does a nice job at work, but she can tell that she won't be working a full-time job very much longer. After taking a week of vacation, or like having the last 4 days off for Thanksgiving, it's super hard for her to get up in the AM, let alone even go to work, but she did it. Bottom Line, for me anyway, I still have the same outspoken and spunky personality I've always had. Fortunately, my wife loves it.