by Daniel Hines (written four years
ago...since then, I have turned 65, remarried and am living the time
of my life)
If I sound confused, bear with me. Having just turned 60, I have had to come to the
realization that it beats the alternative to die at 59. At least on some days. But, that's
another story.
The point is that I am growing older. So what? I started growing older from the moment I
was born and I started that journey towards our inevitable end.
Still, for some time after turning 50, I tried to avoid the appearance of age. I
even went so far as to color my hair. Despite what the advertisements for hair
color tell you, there really is nothing attractive about a head of
artificially colored hair that belongs to a much younger man stuck on top of a face that
is showing its mileage and years. I always suspected that the TV commercials do it
backwards and hire young men whose hair they then dye gray or silver, then show them with
their natural dark hair and tell us that is the result of the dye product. Besides, these
guys are models. They look good with gray hair, dark hair, or no hair.
If dying my hair wasn't enough, I even shaved the hairs on my chest once because they were
turning gray. When you try to dye chest hairs, it turns your skin a different color. That
was right after a much younger lady friend told me that what bothered her most about me
was that she thought of how old I would be when she was the age I was. The fact that I was
in much better physical condition
than she was and she has since become grossly overweight did not matter.
In other words, I was old, but I did not want to be classified as a senior.
So why, if I have done better since then, am I writing about it now? Because a friend
reminded of my own denial recently when he told me of a conversation he had with a
psychologist, of all things, who had appeared on our radio show TodaysSeniors on the
Radio. It seems that while the guest thought the show was great, he believed that older
people resented being called 'seniors.'
Actually, the truth was, as you might guess, that the psychologist himself was in the
early stages of seniorhood. If I were his counselor, I might suggest to him that he is
also in the early stages of denial about his increasing age.
I can't be too judgmental. I have admitted to my past aversion to senior hood. Even
when we first came up with the idea of Today's Seniors Network, I opted for a name for the site
called 'Beautiful World'. Still, I had come a long way from my own early days of being a
senior. I have even let the hair grow back on my chest. It's snow white, and I don't care.
I have quit coloring my hair and it has become a reddish brown mop of full hair sprinkled
with some gray.
But I can't pat myself on the back too much. By insisting upon 'Beautiful World', I was
still not ready to admit that I was a senior or whatever term someone wants to apply to
those of us 50 and over. It was only when I became comfortable with myself, my age and my
life that I decided it was time to understand just where I am. I am a senior, and besides,
we found that there was a Beautiful
World porno site already on the web.
The truth is that there is no single age group that defines seniors. There is the group in
the early 50s. Then you come to those in the 60s. And, more and more 'seniors' are active
into their 70s, 80s and yes, even 90 and above.
And when did senior become a bad word? When I was 17, I was proud to be a senior in high
school. It meant I had paid my dues, sat through my quota of boring classes, mastered
certain skills and reached a level where society said, 'Hey, good going, you're a senior.'
The same is true now. I have paid my dues. I have had successes and failures. I have
reached a time in my life that is not the end of new adventures, but a new beginning. I
have more wisdom and maturity. And, the same is true of
my fellow seniors. I feel good.
So stand back all you youngsters. The senior class is proud of not only what it has done,
but also the contributions it has to make to a society that can benefit
from our experiences. In closing, a word of encouragement to my psychologist friend, don't
worry about becoming a senior. As Zig Ziglar says, if you can get up and go, it
proves you
haven't gotten up and gone. It's better to be here than to be gone!
Now,
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