On January 9th, I turned 62 and everyone has been saying to me "this is your year,” my friend Fausta, added “hey, you can now collect social security” Hoorah!! Hoorah!! This is great, finally the birthday that has 'earned me the right' to collect social security! I can really use the cash and I quickly go on line and get all the facts. After the short application process, however, it became a time of introspection and I’m thinking- “Is that all there is?” (Remember the song by Peggy Lee?) http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qe9kKf7SHco#watch-main-area
I have entered a new Milestone, as I review my life I see that so many things I learned in elementary school have become obsolete. The world has changed. I continue to write drafts on paper by hand , and as I write this entry for instance, I realize that it’s no longer necessary to break up a word at the end of the line. The computer does it automatically, not only that but it checks your grammar and spelling. The list is endless, all these changes, one could go on forever. And at the end of all this, I’m just feeling old, and the poem, The road not taken “by Robert Frost” http://www.bartleby.co , comes to mind.
And I start thinking back to my Baruch College days. I would walk to class along Lexington Ave in the low 20’s, in those days there were lots of cheap hotels and in front of these cheap hotels there would be young pretty teenage girls, mostly blonde and all sweet. It got to the point where I felt I knew them. As time passed, I would see a change in their eyes. The young women mostly but teenagers would start out clean, smiling and happy, and after a few months their eyes were dead, there was no life in them, their bodies bruised and dirty. As I walked past them, tears would roll down my eyes. I wanted to help. I wanted to do something but didn’t know what to do or how to do it. I decided that when I had enough money I would do something. I’d set up a place for young teenage girls and boys to go to for help, a place that would protect them.
I haven’t yet realized that dream, but, as I write this entry, I know I still can. There are a few more things I need to clear up in my life, and then I will be free. In the meanwhile I will start planning for my new/old venture. If anyone out there has any ideas, please contact me.
By the way, is that all there is? NO there’s plenty more.
4 comments:
Great as usual.
Debbie
Beautiful...I know you will, too, when the time is right. And, how wonderful that you've never forgotten...
Great blog and we are just beginning
So much to learn and explore and we are aging like fine wine!
Heloise
Yesterday I called my 68-year-old sister. “Glad you called,” she said. “I’m just packing to go to Phoenix and see Luke and Brittany”—her grandson and his wife—and their two children. After a week with them, she’ll fly to Las Vegas to attend another grandchild’s wedding. She’ll make a quick trip home for a day to celebrate her birthday with her husband and friends, and the day after, she’s embarking on a cruise to Mexico with a friend. She gardens, she sews, she volunteers 2 days a week, and plays the organ every Sunday in church. She does all this on Social Security and a modest pension.
You’re not old. You are entering another phase of life, one that belongs to you in a way that the previous decades did not, what with the kids, the job, the marriage. You don’t have to define your Social Security years by what you remember about the generation before us. This is your time: the kids have been launched, the career—and all the striving that goes with it—is pretty much over, and you’re free to do what you want. Think of all the books you were too busy to read, the friends you’ll now have time to hang out with, the opportunities to volunteer to help someone who’s still struggling. No one has yet solved the problems of poverty and prostitution, so you can rekindle that fire to help.
Put on your high-heel sneakers, girlfriend! You’ve got some living to do.
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