Sunday Morning. Saturday night is gone and my shoes too!
Mark Twain once wrote that it would be a much better way to navigate life if only we could be born at age 85 and then gradually get younger over the years. That way we could enjoy the benefit from the wisdom of old age and generally use it as we became younger and stronger, thus eliminating all the horrible lessons of life that we never had access to when we were younger. Why didn't I understand what life was all about when I was young and was able to profit from this wisdom? Boy I don't have a good answer.
As I thought about this short proverb, the thought occurred to me that this subject of getting older was only half of the story. Without a doubt, most of us learn from our mistakes. Otherwise why have a brain to guide us through life? It would be a useless 3 pound blob of grey matter. (I'm not going to take any cheap shots at our political actors!)
As much as we would like, it seems almost impossible for young people to listen to the advice of "old crustations" like me. I was always amazed how much smarter my parents became as I started to face the same life challenges that they had done. Why were they so out of touch when I was a hormonally challenged teenager??
Lucca opens me up to an alternative reality about youth
The allure of this place is that it is the perfect breeding ground for what I can only call "youthful exuberance". No matter what time of the day or night that I head out for a walk, I always encounter young people laughing, singing, and yes often screaming with delight as they pedal past on their bicycles and bicycle " chariots". Toddlers are very enthusiastic greeters and horn sounders. The electricity they bring to the city and to me personally is infectious.
Lucca seems to be the perfect place for youthful exuberance
Lucca also invites me to look at my own culture and all it's assumptions about aging with a bit more of a wider perspective. I've approached the 3rd rail of senior citizens many times over the past few years. And I've encountered lots of horrified reactions when I express my "honest" opinions about the "seniors" that now seem to surround me no matter where I try to escape. I know that there are millions of senior citizens who strive be be surruonded by others like themselves as they ease of into the sunset. But as for me, I can't imagine a more depressing way to waste away my final years on this planet than in gated, seniors only, planned death community. Wouldn't it be fun to play golf every morning with all those other hip replacement guys where we could talk about our prostate treatments? NO!
The thing I've absolutely learned about "senior citizens" is that they may have been well educated and they may have also acquired boatloads of world experience over the decades. But it doesn't seem to translate into learning how to adapt in the final chapter of their life...exactly the time when they should be able PROFIT from their superior vantage points. These are folks who were handed the most prosperous, peaceful, informed, democratic, cushy, existence the world has ever seen and they still can't figure out how to repair a water faucet because they have no idea of how to find the 42 YouTube videos on the subject. These are people who are on 5 different body altering drugs because their doctor prescribed them... all at the same time. These are people who think an app is something you eat before the main course. These are people have the world all figured out and they have no need to get out of their comfort zone for their final time on the planet. I have a very short fuse interacting with fossils
Unfortunately, this is how I view many of my contempories
So what's the summary and conclusion of this idle rant. I think I would like to believe the "wisdom that comes with age" fairy tale that the AARP loves to foist on the general public. It's good for membership. I'm more than willing to admit that I've grown old much too soon. But I see very little evidence that most of us ever grow smarter... no matter how long we haunt the planet. Maybe if we had 9 lives like the average cat, it would be different. But with only one life, I find myself and others around me making the same dumb rookie mistakes that we were making a half century earlier.
That's my story and I'm stickin to it.
Dan
