Implying that at some certain age we have reached the peek of our usefulness and our lives are slowing or fast in some cases sliding down that slippery slope on our way to being helpless.

This is the picture depicted on party favors, cards, advertising and yes they even made a movie, “The Over The Hill Gang.” This starts about around age fifty, you know the jokes, the smiles and shaking of heads, the AARP cards arrive in the mail and you are given discounts at stores, restaurants . movies and perks for achieving such a great age. I do not find this in any way amusing, helpful, (except for the perks.) to be of value to anyone.

Our obsession with youth and all it’s glory is way over rated. I was unhappy, struggling, and climbing those hills and still climbing hills at age fifty seven. I used to use my body to do things that I learned along the way I could use my mind to archive in a way I never did in youth. My footing is surer and stronger than it was in my twenty’s thirty’s and yes even in my forties. I no longer keep doing the same things and expecting a different result of my actions. Nor do I see life as a point when we say all is done, all is finished, I have climbed that hill, nothing left to do but slide into old age and give it up. Why do we allow this? Some might say they find it funny, amusing and an endearment of projecting that someone over fifty is done.

This is done by our society, advertisers, movies, television and yes even we are guilty of doing it to ourselves. Why let others define who you are? Why let some silly saying give you thought that you are no longer of use to this world? Why indeed.
Because the very people that are promoting this foolishness are over fifty, not some young up and coming executive. It is the mainstream media that shows us that only young, thin, beautiful, rich people with glamorous careers are worth anything. I think in this culture, we are entirely youth-obsessed, and so we view aging as a catastrophe — that it only brings negatives. When you look in other cultures where aging looks different. The aged are sages and treated as such.
I had thought that turning 50 was going to be the big milestone. But, in retrospect, it wasn’t, I just had a another party.

Vanity has been one of the best reasons to sell anything, from healthy food, skin care, hair conditioning, gym accessories, botox, silicone and so on.
We have a “look” culture and beauty stereotypes that do not allow us to appreciate beauty of aging, and this is a fact that most of the companies in beauty business take advantage of.

Since life expectancy has increased in last decades, I think most of the people should for instance consider the conditions in which they are going to get old and not the number of wrinkles and gray hair they are going to have when becoming old people. In this point I believe the concept of healthy aging should be more important as culture, life style and attitude towards our own future life conditions than physical look.

Anyway, we all agree we cannot stop the marching onward of time nor can we turn back the clock. But we can stop buying into the notion that as people approach a certain age, they are done. We have reached the panicle of the mountain top and all that is left is the old folks home.

We do need recognizable ‘names’ to come along and start a revolution that aging is to be embraced. That those with lines and wrinkles still have a life, are still worth something. Since the majority of the USA is baby boomers, shouldn’t we start this revolution? It’s not about beauty, it’s about character and how that character is presented. There, you have your first slogan now go climb that hill.

Well worth the wait.
Do you think putting things on hold are well worth the wait? I struggle with this and yet we now can have what we want when we want it at our fingertips.

With everyone firmly entrenched in the digital age, it is an afterthought for our society to use computers, cell phones, texting to speed communications, manage repetitive tasks, and make short work of complex calculations. While the benefits of information technology have been widely documented, the irony of a “connected” environment is that it can disconnect us with other people.
A majority of decisions used to be made one on one and face to face based on gut feeling and experience. Now more often then not decisions are made via computers. The relationships between people has become one that is tied to our computers, cell phones, and texting.
There are many of you who have been asking the question, “Why do I feel so disconnected, so lost?”

Depersonalization, If depersonalization is a symptom of the age we now live in, the Sufferer feels they have changed, and the world has become less real, vague, dreamlike, or lacking in significance. It can be a disturbing experience, since many feel that, indeed, they are living in a “dream”. What is personal about a personal computer? Why do we text messages that sometimes have no meaning, content or reason? Because we feel alone. With all the many ways to stay in touch, we have lost touch. We have become slaves to a world with little social contact unless it involves meetings, tweet-ups, gatherings with strangers whom we try to impress as they try to impress us. All looking for a connection in an enviroment that has set us up for failure as we have no lasting connections to the persons on facebook, twitter, and all the other social media that is fast making it’s way into your life and involves buying, selling, dating and too many agendas to name here. But I think you get the point.

What I am saying is while I use all the tools known to modern man too, I have suddenly had an eye opener myself. Here it is Friday night and I am setting here pouring out what I am hearing from other people, (as well as what I am feeling) on my personal computer, to post on my Blog and tweet on Twitter, then link to Facebook, and than go check my e-mail, voice mail and text messages. Next week I have made a promise to myself, I will not tweet, check Facebook, text or spend any of my free time on this computer. For one whole week I will read, take a walk in the park, meet with a friend for dinner, see a movie, write a real letter I have to put a stamp on and see how it feels to connect again. Will let you know in one week how it goes, wish me luck.