More to do with aging or ageism..? 17 12 21 (17) 25 2 16

Street wising up in old age..? 17 12 17

Just this last week I decided it was time I took the gigantic step forward and began a process which I can only describe as street-wising up to the new set of circumstances which are presented to one as a consequence of growing old..?

The first step then was to start telling whoppers in order to get one's point across, like hitting a walnut with a sledge hammer to make sure of getting at its kernel…You see I have this friend who some years ago moved towns so that now he lives an hour’s drive away but who at this time of year likes me to go over to make a festive season visit but who only rarely with his wife comes over to visit us, though in fairness they did come around this time of year last year… But you see he is a Persian in origin and like my wife has one of these so-called high context cultures which entails exaggerating the need for these kinds of visits leaving me wondering at times is this just exaggerated politeness..? Unlike my low context culture the British which is more inclined to call a spade a spade. Hahaha!

Well I sorted him out this time my telling him I was so stressed out with an on-line photograph album for which I had a dead-line to meet and then I told him about my wife’s extensive social calendar who at the time of the telephone call was in England visiting our younger son and his family and taking our two granddaughters to a London show as our Christmas treat to them… Since this was all true I guess you would rather me describe it as laying it on a bit thick, but I am sure you’ll get my meaning anyway.

The second step involved concealing one's vulnerabilities eg. like losing one's petrol cap out of sheer stupidity on the one hand but without the need to proclaim it from the highest rooftops on the other...hahaha. I run this old Saab you see and when it was vandalised a few years ago with kids kicking the off-side door in, breaking the off-side rear-view mirror and jumping up and down on the bonnet to leave footmark indentations I took the car round to the Police Station next day for them to inspect the damage and to my surprise got my insurance company to pay for the bulk of the damage. So quietly I ordered a replacement petrol cap from my second-hand parts supplier and so will now get a replacement one for € 15 about US$ 12, not a princely sum for such stupidity so there you go. In future I shall have to put the cap inside my cab to prevent a recurrence.

The third step involves holding my ground in discussions with eg. my elder son S and his elder son A about the scans I was supposed to have had delivered weeks ago, etc., wherein S straight off jumped to A's defence about how much school work he has to do in his 6^th form school with matriculation exams coming up in his final year, plus his job delivering hot restaurant meals on his push-bike etc., etc., etc., but I pressed on with my case that as he has demonstrated he is now all grown up at 18, with a steady girl-friend and stuff, and he must also be ready to shoulder the responsibility for delivering on stuff long overdue, on the date he undertook to deliver by, which little by little he realised was indefensible. In this way I avoided the run-in with A himself who shortly thereafter appeared with all the scans I’d awaited, collected in a Google account in his smart phone: scans of transparencies from an age before the digital age came in that everyone now takes for granted? Have a good day everyone as I hope you don’t become too much of a patsy in your old ages..?

Street wising up in old age..? 17 12 21 Or "Grappling with ageism"...and now for me re-reading what i wrote already a full seven years ago tells much about how long the process has been going on but by virtue of re-posting these snippets perhaps insructive also for others not aware of the changing times we get to live through?