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The Nation's Pulse
Happy Whiny People
Why really old people are happier than you and me.
(Page 2 of 2)
Also, old people are happier because they no longer care about the nonsense younger people care about: i.e., ambition, popularity, looks, material goods, pleasing supposedly important people. In fact, they don’t care about much of anything. I already don’t care about those things, so I’m off to a good start.
None of this means old folks are not thoroughly disgusted with today’s youth. Other research shows that old fogies get a boost of self-esteem reading negative articles about young people, because, basically, everything in popular culture and TV is aimed at them, except Matlock, and they had to go and cancel that.
That’s good news too. It means one can be old and happy and still enjoy watching young people get their comeuppance. In fact, I’m feeling happier just thinking about it.
About the Author
Christopher Orlet writes from St. Louis.
Letter to the Editor View all comments (80) | Leave a comment
More Articles by Christopher Orlet
More Articles From The Nation's Pulse
http://spectator.org/archives/2011/01/06/happy-whiny-people
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Appleby| 1.6.11 @ 7:13AM
I am nearly 63 and I am happy about many things -- mainly because I bypassed the Long March by not getting married, not having children, not buying property, not for the most part owning anything except books and enough furniture and stuff to live with, and a series of laid-back cats who share my outlook on life.
I am happy that I spent all my money on travelling the world, and now have a great array of happy memories of places that nobody under 40 will ever see because what I saw is either ruined or too dangerous to visit now. And I have my memories in photo albums, not on media that changes hourly so that nothing you did in the 1990s is accessible anymore. I have a cell phone that I bought in 2001 and I have a great collection of VCR movies and I am happy with both. I have a stupid digital camera and I dislike it, but I still have my film camera and I like that.
I am happy that I got to cover the 24 Hours of Le Mans 6 times as a web journalist, and this year when the 12 hours of Sebring will not be broadcast on TV anywhere, I get to attend in person.
Yes, I do complain about the binkie-slingers and wireheads of today who were brought up in the bush by the kangaroos and whose mothers are apparently too busy trying to convince their sons friends that they are Hot to teach their sons to move their fat heinies out of that subway seat and give it to a lady. I tremble for the future when I think that anybody at all would consider Justin Beiber Hot, and I wonder if the Toronto Maple Leafs will win another Stanley Cup before the entire team that won the last one (in 1967) is dead.
Yes, I will never see the Earth from space -- but I saw men walk on the Moon, and the current generation doesnt even know there is a Moon unless somebody posts it on Facebook.
We old folks had something the modern generation will never have: we had reality. I think that ought to make us not only happy but smug.
Lullabys, Legends and Lies| 1.6.11 @ 8:57AM
Appleby: When's the 12 hours of Sebring happening this year? I've never been to it, but my Folks live just down the road from it, and if my Commander signs off on my pass, maybe I could make it there this year (if I don't get deployed first that is).
So we get more unhappy in our early 50's? Great!! And I thought I had already reached my most pissed off level already (which is happening today coincidentally), but I've still got another decade to go before I really do? I can't even really fathom that. Oh well, I'm not the one that really suffers from it when I'm pissed off anyway, it's everybody else's problem to deal with. And I almost feel bad for them, but I don't!!
Dan Hirsch| 1.6.11 @ 6:51PM
WHOAA!!!!
Happiness is a decision we all make. If you are not happy, it's because you have decided that whatever it is you are experiencing is not what you want. If you are, it's because you've decided to accept what you have.
The more important concept is what does your mood do to those around you. I once watched a fellow ten years older than me go through the checkout lane at the building supply superstore in front of me. He found a crabby, cranky clerk who was not enjoying her day. The elder fellow made a couple of lame jokes with her and eventually broke through her gloom, leaving her laughing.
I saw my future right there - that man was leaving a wake of smiles behind himself, I have tried hard to emulate his behavior. I'll not add to others woe; I'll try to add to their joy. After all, it's not all about me, is it?
Joy can be contagious - try it. You catch more flies with honey than vinegar...now what am I going to do with all these danged flies!!!
And, don't tread on me.
Denver Todd| 1.6.11 @ 9:27AM
I am unmarried, and I have traveled, but I find little consolation that I will die alone without a wife or children at my side, and I will be dependent on paid caretakers such as assisted living until I die. I don't think this is something to be happy about.
Appleby| 1.7.11 @ 5:59AM
Millions of people with wives and children will still die alone. Visit a Nursing Home or retirement residence in your community and become the family of one of these, and cheer yourself up. My sisters make a point of visiting the common room at the senior living apartments where Mama lives and speaking to everyone there, and their children show off the babies and tots, teaching them the pleasure of doing the same. There are many people living in that building whose children never visit them; they would be happy to see you.
Pelligrino| 1.8.11 @ 6:31PM
Appleby,
Right on! Amen to your message about visiting the nursing homes. It can be pretty cool. I have done this in the past but probably just recently had my best New Year's celebration ever at a local home. It really was pretty cool. We did the 'ball drop' count two different times, made huge noise, whoops, singing, tooting. I was easily 30 years younger than anyone in the room (except staff and a few family members visiting). No, never had a better moment on New Year's Eve. Those 50 folks were funny, chatty, smiling, and sang really well at all the piano songs.
P.S. Appleby, you are certainly not old. No way.
P.P.S. Please share a couple of your travel destinations that were highlights for you but that are now no longer safe zones for everyday tourism. Thank you....and enjoy Sebring!
Bayou Boy| 1.8.11 @ 10:42AM
Just go out and help somebody for no reason other than to help them. You will feel better.
mbd| 1.6.11 @ 10:14AM
You may still have your film camera, but you will have no Kodachrome to capture future memories with it.
Appleby| 1.7.11 @ 6:00AM
Then its a good thing I made my memories when I was young!
Padoux| 1.6.11 @ 10:46AM
I guess I am the "anti Appleby" since I married, had two kids, never traveled much, but do own many books. I am 65 and the price I paid was the death of a daughter at age 28, and the recent freak accident that claimed my wonderful wife of 41 years. It is indeed a high price. I do have a wonderful son, daughter-in-law and ray of sunshine named Lydia who at age 20 months is the joy of my life. When I lost my wife recently I pondered, was it really worth the pain? Where and who would I be had I remained solitary? A fruitless question I guess we must all in our later years ask. I do know that the memories I have of children, family life, hurts, joys give me comfort. I now suffer grief daily but a lifetime of love with my dear wife is worth every tear, every sleepless night, and I know the sharpness of that pain will wane with time as it did with my daughter. As to being grumpy I confess happily but this affliction has been with me most of my adult life and concerns mostly politics and the lack of personal honor, morality, loyalty, courage, I see in today's world of easy virtue, relativism, and immediate gratification life style. I am bloviating, but I heard there is an old Jewish saying that man plans and God laughs, how true, how true,
cuban pete| 1.6.11 @ 12:14PM
Padoux
You and your family are in my prayers.
"Love is stronger than death.
So we must be content to know that
love is not effected by death-
it doesn't end, it doesn't diminish,
it does not change.
Instead, love is immortalized
and eternalized through death.
And the possibility of that love ever
being damaged or broken
is eliminated forever.
I'll put my trust in love."
Mary Hollingsworth
Jari| 1.6.11 @ 12:17PM
Padoux, I am glad you have the 20 month old ray of sunshine.
The older I get, the more I realize how precious family is - and how much we should have done, and still need to do, for the next generations to come along.
BILOXIPAT| 1.6.11 @ 5:18PM
I have been given the diagnosis of four months left to live. I don't intend to spend one precious moment of that time regretting things I didn't do or things I DID do. I got a haircut today, thinking, "This may be the very last haircut I ever get. Hope it's a good one." I cherish my daughter more each day as she happily does things for me, and we laugh aloud at movies and television as we always did. I hope I can continue to do that right up to the last, and that that will be my legacy to friends and family: She laughed her way through this world.
Appleby| 1.7.11 @ 6:02AM
God be with you in your journey; you sound as if you are happy and prepared. Thank you for posting. Do come back and see us.
Bayou Boy| 1.8.11 @ 10:46AM
Bless you and yours. Your writing relates to me that you are a person worth knowing.
I to think that God has a sense of humor, though I believe that he has made us stronger than we acknowledge.....this is no reflection at all upon your experience...Again blessings of peace and joy for you.
Nick Trill| 1.6.11 @ 11:07PM
Seasoned citizens are the most entitled persons in the country. I'm a waiter and the don't tip correctly
Beer (f.m.h.)| 1.6.11 @ 7:14AM
I'm 56, and yes indeed, I can see the light at the end of the tunnel: none of the kids failed to launch, personal finances are improving, the political landscape is more verdant. Why just yesterday, I could swear the sun finally came out briefly!
Glen H| 1.6.11 @ 7:40AM
Interesting article, but your hyperlink to The Economist is fubar.
PJ| 1.6.11 @ 8:19AM
Could it be that the old folks are happy because they finally made peace w/God & look forward to Heaven? I am pretty sure there are no atheists at that age just like none in the foxholes.
bonus time| 1.7.11 @ 3:53PM
Sorry, but atheists can enjoy this stage of life too. And be one in a foxhole in a war so long, long ago. I know. I was one...and am one. Just live your life like every day is a bonus....because it really is.
Ken (Old Texican)| 1.6.11 @ 8:35AM
Christopher,
A great piece, top to bottom.
You did leave out Viagra however.
Betty Jean Haggers| 1.6.11 @ 11:31AM
Disgusting.
When I think of saggy, baggy old people having sex, it really turns my stomach.
Ken (Old Texican)| 1.6.11 @ 11:46AM
Betty,
Ha! good one.
Now let me tell you a really good one. (told to me by grandmother in her 90s)
In their late seventies, my grandmother and my grandfather were getting ready to snuggle up, and my grandma found herself apologizing for not being as pretty as she once was.
My grandfather replied...and I quote: "Lydia, you have given me eight wonderful children, and worked side by side with me in the fields. You are just as lovely in my eyes as the day I married you. If you are shy now...just move the candle a little further from our bed."
CharlieEcho| 1.6.11 @ 12:04PM
Unless you are a saggy, baggy old folk who is having sex. Married forty-two years in May. Five grand kids, from two adult children. All of whom live close. That's what life is all about. Procreation and saggy-baggy old folks sex.
We have had our share of heart break and joys. I've seen both kids and grand kids experience everything new in life. Each time one of the "kids" might disappoint me I try to put myself in the place of my parents and grandparents. Those folks had the greatest of patients.
We have scrap books of pictures and boxes too. We've traveled with all the kids.
You don't have to be a teacher to teach. If you are going to leave memories, they must be stored in someone else's head.
The "kids" are what it's all about as far as I'm concerned. It aint been easy but it sure has been. If I get happier as I get older so be it.
Judy Beumler| 1.6.11 @ 3:27PM
OK. Betty Jean, when you are saggy, baggy and old, I hope you can find another person just as shallow and condescending as you. You will be a perfect couple or a very lonel, saggy, bagg, old girl.
BILOXIPAT| 1.6.11 @ 5:19PM
Do you spend much time thinking about that? Maybe you need professional help.
saggy and baggy I guess| 1.10.11 @ 12:23AM
Well, Betty Jean, I'm almost 60, and sex with my husband of 30 years is BETTER than ever.
cuban pete| 1.6.11 @ 8:50AM
I subscribe to Groucho's axiom.
" You are only as old as the women you feel."
Jeremiah| 1.6.11 @ 9:52AM
Burgess Meredith's great line in 'Grumpy Old Men' upon watching a sweet, young thing go by: "Oh, to be 80 again!"
I'm 54. A friend was talking about how nice it would be to be 20 again. I said I would go for it if I could get the physical prowess back without all the angst and hormones and worrying about piddly stuff that don't mean a damned thing. If not, I'd prefer to stay as I am, aches and all. (But oh, how lovely it would be to be able to hit a baseball 450 feet again - just once!)
Seamus| 1.6.11 @ 2:21PM
I've heard that line attributed to Justice Oliver Wendell Holmes. (He supposedly said "to be 70", but it's the same idea.)
jmulcahy| 1.6.11 @ 10:18PM
Seamus,
Another Justice Holmes quote was when he turned 75, someone asked him how he felt.
He said, "I don't feel like an old man. I feel like a young man who has something seriously wrong with him."
Eric Cartman| 1.6.11 @ 10:39AM
Get off my lawn!
Will| 1.6.11 @ 10:53AM
50-53?, thank God, next year this fugue is over with! Sebring not on T.V.?, now there's something to crab incessantly about, I'll have drive down and witness it live with Appelby and LL&L.
Aston Martin in Gulf livery!
Appleby| 1.7.11 @ 6:06AM
And we can look forward to seeing all the Peugeots explode like they did at Le Mans! There is no car as arresting as one in Gulf livery. Glad Pickett Racing and Klaus Graf are going to run the Aston Martin this year. Klaus can drive ANYTHING.
Paul from SA| 1.6.11 @ 11:01AM
The subtitle should be, "...happier than you and I (am)", not "happier than you and me."
Andrew Wilson | 1.6.11 @ 11:48AM
The New Fowler's Modern English Usage states that "than" can be used either as a conjunction or a preposition. The late Bill Safire made the same point in one of his "word maven" columns. So there is nothing wrong with the subtitle (which would have sounded schoolmarmish if it had said "happier than you and I'). Kudoes to Christopher Orlet on another very entertaining column.
superannuated| 1.6.11 @ 12:18PM
What appleby is happiest about is she has once more had the opportunity to tell the world how much better it is not to share your life with anyone on a permanent basis - not to be responsible for the welfare of another human being - to be free, free, free to she, she, she living on (probably partially) invented memories that improve with the re-telling. The embroidery-work on those stories by the time she is 83 will rival the Tales of the Arabian Night.
Ain't grandiosity grand!
Appleby| 1.7.11 @ 6:11AM
Every family needs an old maid to come in and clean up the messes made by the family members who chose another path. I have helped rear some wonderful kids that belong to my sister -- they used to jokingly call themselves my rent-a-kids -- while she freed herself from two disastrous marriages, and am available to help out when needed. The old saying Brighten The Corner Where You Are is a good motto --and the truth is that some people make much better old maids than we ever would wives. The fortunate among us realize this before we fling ourselves into multiple marriages in a vain attempt to change fate.
Pelligrino| 1.8.11 @ 7:19PM
Appleby, please pay no mind to the words of a poster yesterday (above). Like Texican and many others here, I enjoy reading your views on things. I suspect a very decent, very friendly, very giving lady behind the words we read.
We cannot know the exact road that God will have us travel. Sometimes we do our own detours and they turn out grand or they turn out to be disappointments.
I have two single siblings who are no longer young. They live full, active, very charitable lives.
As I sometimes have looked to see if a colleague, friend, acquaintance, fellow church goer, would make a suitable mate/date for them, I am often disappointed.
A lot of people grow up but don't grow to be mature.
There is nothing wrong with being single. In fact it has its real advantages, being able at the spur of the moment to jump in and aid, sit at a hospital bedside, drive for a friend who cannot, sit for kids, watch the dog while the family is away, have time to help the foreigner who is truly lost in this new, strange place.
I think that our friend Appleby has gained much of this life wisdom and lives it. And there's lots of people who are overly glad that she is just like she is.
Ken (Old Texican)| 1.6.11 @ 12:45PM
Superannuated,
"Appleby" has become a dear friend here. I always look for her take on the news of the day.
You know, every single human being has their own race to run. It is often a lonesome race.
I lost my first wife to Cystic Fibrosis at age 27. I have spent half my adult life "single".
I consider myself terribly fortunate...I met my best friend at age 55. Heh, she is my age, a red-head...and can prove it. She fills my cup to overflowing.
On the one hand, I would wish that Appleby had the same good fortune that I have had. At the same time, I am proud of her for never "settling for less".
Appleby, God bless and God's speed.
...afterthought: My wife often wonders why I don't turn on a radio or music album when we are traveling. I tell her I am playing video-memories.
Jeamar37| 1.6.11 @ 1:04PM
For the first time I read comments today on this site where people actually stuck to commenting about the article and not making mean, vulgar, nasty remarks about other's comments. I read very few comments in sources but this site usually takes the cake for featuring ad hominem writers indulging in their anonymity. Hope to see more like today.
Ken (Old Texican)| 1.6.11 @ 1:26PM
Jeamar37,
...........at 3701 Smith Street, nowhere, USA, zip 73569
We enjoy our privacy...Go some place else if you are offended.
Shortly, we are in a new "war between the States".
There is no way in hell we Texans are going to pay Californians for being stupid as dirt.
Please, quit being Tinkerbell and get serious, OK?
Jeamar37| 1.6.11 @ 1:48PM
Actually, Ken (OT) your comments are some of the best. I'm not really offended by some of very off-subject ad hominem comments, just puzzled by why otherwise apparently intelligent people (They do read American Spectator) indulge in such comments.
Bob Grant| 1.6.11 @ 3:18PM
Jeamar37:
As long as you side with THEIR brand of conservatism, ad hominem attacks will be kept to a minimum. Go off track just a wee bit, however, and you might as well befriend Hugo Chavez.
Ann| 1.6.11 @ 6:33PM
I agree...most are touching and funny. Nice.
Johnny Bronx| 1.6.11 @ 1:07PM
The reason why older people are happier isn't because they've resigned themselves to being ordinary. It's because they've stopped trying to be something they're not and found that who they are is just fine. They've come to understand that they don't really need to achieve societally approved ideal goals to be happy or fulfilled. And they realize that fulfillment comes from expressing Who You Really Are, and not from aping some TV or movie icon. They've breathed a sigh of relief at being able to say, and mean it, "Thank god I don't have to try to be THAT anymore!"
Franco| 1.6.11 @ 1:22PM
I wholeheartedly agree. The one thing that ruins the wonderful relief of "Thank God I don't have to do/be that crap anymore" is an overload of endless chores to do so you don't get to luxuriate in that feeling. My gramps lived to 99 but instead of relief he became in time overwhelmed by junk mail and chores and a million other bits of day-to-day tedium as well as his failing health. He had the constitution of a bulldozer but wouldn't, or couldn't simplify his life to know what was truly important and what was merely urgent.
I'm 42 and I'm already looking forward to being a curmudgeon. Just got to know how to stay healthy and how to delgate and from time to time say the hell with it and let someone else take care of it. Which is exactly how I feel about our nation's problems sometimes.
Rich Fisher| 1.6.11 @ 8:48PM
Johnny, you have really hit it. I don't know just exactly what year it was, I'm 62 now, but I remember how great it was to not have to prove" what a man I am" anymore. You need that huge TV moved? Call a mover. Need that washing machine taken down the stairs? Good luck. Happiness was pretty much that simple. I realized I no longer had to do anything just because somebody thought I should, I could have a no PC attitude and not really give a damn. As a former Marine I appreciate the Commandants not wanting queers in the Marines. That type of stuff. No longer have to impress anyone and am certainly no longer impressed with peoples own sense of self importance. Getting old can be great if you take advantage of the "perks".
Perusha| 1.6.11 @ 2:02PM
Appleby wrote “I saw men walk on the Moon”.
Right now, I am looking at my keyboard (since I never learned to touch type).
Unless Appleby was on the moon, also, she did NOT “see” men walk on the moon. She, or rather, the eyeballs, as the window on the out-there world, received images of fluctuating elements that came from transformations MANY MILES AWAYS of the real men walking on the moon.
Indeed, this science FACT, which is of course hardly ever “observed” by us more evolved humans, could also be useful to remedy most other misapplications of concreteness.
EVERY received sensory input is absolutely DEAD, in the reality that it has already happened.
Looking up at any star in the night sky, what is seen is MERELY the arriving light from many years ago---in short, this SEEING is literal “looking into the past”.
So, ANY instant one is alive and physically plucking all incoming waves of energy and light, even touching apparently solid objects, exactly the same thing is true.
It’s like being a little bit pregnant or a lot---in all cases, EVERYTHING coming IN is from the PAST.
Put THAT in your present pipe of enjoyment and smoke it.
This is another variation of the most egregious CW assumption that remains uninspected by most people---
To wit, that “I HAVE a body.”
“I” doesn’t have = own the body---one IS the body, and “I” is truly just the body speaking.
I am that I am.
You are that you are.
Let there be Light.
Ray| 1.6.11 @ 3:45PM
"Unless Appleby was on the moon, also, she did NOT “see” men walk on the moon."
Just like Appleby, I SAW men walk on the moon. You do understand that most of those landings and excursions were televised LIVE all over the world, don't you?
Ray| 1.6.11 @ 3:53PM
"Unless Appleby was on the moon, also, she did NOT “see” men walk on the moon."
By they way, according to the logic you use in your semantic arguments, you're not actually LOOKING at that keyboard. You are, instead, "looking" at the photons that are reflected by the surface of the keyboard. You can never actually "see" the keyboard itself. You can only "see" the effect that keyboard makes on "light waves" or "photons."
Put THAT in your semantic pipe and smoke it!
Rich Fisher| 1.6.11 @ 8:51PM
Perusha, not to worry, they'll be by to pick you up in a few minutes. If you don't have anything intelligent, or even interesting to say, go to the Huffington Post where that kind of drivel passess for deep thought.
Perusha| 1.7.11 @ 1:26PM
“If you don't have anything intelligent, or even interesting to say, go to the Huffington Post where that kind of drivel passess for deep thought.
Sir, are you really writing that cutting edge science has proved is “drivel”?
I acknowledge that what is elementally true---that all matter is evolved from light, over time---is NOT commonly the way people move about in our most gross world, but maybe it’d be helpful if we got around to at least sometimes realizing this TRUTH.
For all you religious “nut” out there, who might believe in some old time miracles, such as at Fatima, well, science has determined that, bottom line---
The human body is absolutely “having a vision”, when seeing occurs.
Do you SEE this?
Appleby| 1.7.11 @ 6:16AM
I repeat: we old folks had what you wireheads will never have. WE HAD REALITY.
Someday the world will end and you will sit with your dead iPhone in your hand and starve to death waiting for some old fogey to come and make it all work again. Enjoy your nonexistence.
somnolence| 1.6.11 @ 2:20PM
I'm 57, but I don't know if I really feel some of the aches others on this blog do as I can go out right now and consistently punt a football 100-150 times 50 yards per kick. As far as hitting a baseball 450 feet, no, but I have no trouble hitting it 250-300. I choose to be grumpy only when I want to be. I've been married 30 years, no children, retired, and loving it. I'd much rather die at home than "put on the brakes" driving at age 80 to the doctor's office regularly. Cheers.
Ray| 1.6.11 @ 3:33PM
Everyone knows how the various generation "gaps," various life stages, affect one's demeanor:
Children are amazed at life itself and are generally happy.
Teenagers are upset with the imitations that the older generations imposes upon them and are generally frustrated.
Middle aged people are dissatisfied with their lives and are angry with just about everyone.
And, last but not least, the elderly are amazed at still being alive and are generally grateful.
This has been general knowledge for tens of thousands of years. I mean, really, even the Greeks wrote several well-known plays, poems , and stories about this very subject several thousand years ago. I'm surprised that someone felt it was necessary to actually "research" it.
LiveFreeOrDie| 1.6.11 @ 9:13PM
Well, it's good knowledge. When old people are angry in droves over liberal policy you can no longer blame it on their "grumpiness."
coal carrier| 1.6.11 @ 5:26PM
I am 15 away from 80. I have a wonderful wife for the last 45 years who gave me 3 beautiful children, who in turn gave us 5 beautiful grandchildren. I saw my father pass into Heaven so I know that there is a place for us all after this life.
If I will be happier at 80, I guess they will have to remove my smile with surgery. I am sure that Obamacare will cover it, since they don’t want anyone to be happy.
wnmc| 1.6.11 @ 5:50PM
Divorced and 51. I guess I am in the middle of the bad time. A lot of my friends both younger and my age are anxious and to my mind worry to much. My advice to them is to for a long walk every day and learn to read.
Hey and I saw the moon landing too. In a tiny little cottage who owned the only tv in the area (it was a cottage on Saltspring Island, B.C.). There were twenty of us in that tiny living room and it happened. Probably the most memorable piece of television ever.
BTW- this has too be the nicest thread I have read in many years. Thanks to you all out there.
Negro X| 1.6.11 @ 5:51PM
As an 18 kid in Vietnam I knew the answers to all the questions and the solutions to all the problems. I now sit here as an old man with nothing but questions searching for solutions, what in the hell happened?
Now though I do understand 'deja vu all over again".
Being old I now fully understand "deja vu, all over again".
Conrad Spiracy| 1.6.11 @ 7:12PM
Thank you Christopher. One of your best yet.
wnmc - divorced (10 years) and 52. Both daughters in college now, so I beginning to reach out.
All - two things:
1. My ex and I attended a Christian marriage seminar about a year after we were married. One of the presenters asked if we know the three stages of sex. When no one responded, he went up to the board and wrote:
Newlywed - twice daily
Middle age - twice weekly
Old age - twice, weakly
2. This is one of my favorite Jimmy Buffet songs, and has been for over 30 years. I'd put up a link to a live performance, but there's too much crowd noise. If you can, either find or buy "You Had to be There" recorded in Atlanta in 1978. The crowd is respectfully quiet, and the recording engineering superb. Herewith:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EMozCfz0cZM
May we all live to be the best age for each of us.
Con Spiracy
Conrad Spiracy| 1.6.11 @ 7:13PM
DUH!
... so now I AM beginning to reach out.
fidgety old fingers :-)
Paul Ashley| 1.6.11 @ 9:01PM
I'm 57 and still unhappy. Am I a late bloomer?
general summerall| 1.7.11 @ 12:38AM
When I first came of being conscious Mama still listened to Gildersleeve and Ma Perkins on the radio and then came the photons of Gorgeous George ,and Ma gave me clips of David Eisenhower and his Grampa from Cappers Weekly to take to show and tell. Sixty years later I am getting photons of Hannity and Tony Wiener on Fox. From Eddie Fisher to Bieber. In my old age I have taken up the challenge of trying to understand the IIth Amendment and discovered mixed martial arts. Stayin' Alive. Disco will return!
tmbruner| 1.7.11 @ 1:37AM
I just turned 54, so I'm supposed to get all happy now?
Bah! You're not the boss of me!
henry| 1.7.11 @ 3:12AM
I can see most of the people posting here are of my generation because they can actually spell and their syntax is good. My biggest fear is Parkinson's and the dreaded Alzheimer's.
oldfart| 1.7.11 @ 4:00AM
At 64 you know why I am happy - I don't have to put up with the idiots on the DC Beltway who feel they must talk on the cell phone - text on the blackberry, shave (or put on makeup) plus try to drive in rush hour traffic at the same time. I went through withdrawal pangs when I stopped working but now my stress level is WAY down. :)
Tommy | 1.7.11 @ 5:55AM
We should be happiest in the prime of life, not when we're spending 75 percent of our time in doctors' waiting rooms, and the rest of the time driving back and forth to the doctor's office.
Appleby| 1.7.11 @ 11:36AM
The best thing about old age is that we no longer have to listen to people telling us what we SHOULD do. We can do as we darned well please.
JT| 1.7.11 @ 8:20AM
Happiness is a warm gun Bang Bang Shoot Shott- at least according to John Lennon. Here is an article I read a couple of years ago and re-wrote it. It's titled WHEN WILL LIFE GET BETTER? it is worth the read
http://www.facebook.com/note.php?note_id=79874727459
Ken Roberts| 1.7.11 @ 9:32AM
At 67 years I am so pleased with they way my life has went . I have kids that give me accolades behind my back for being the ideal parent; knowing that many of their friends had to endure their parents fighting and the drunk that staggers home leaves them completely disgusted . I have many grand children that I delight in seeing play and talk and having the time of their young lives. I am at rest with my life and it is good . I have known three great women in my life the first was so child like and she did not get it . but she is gone and she was a delight to know . my second wife would have been my last if it had not been for death coming so soon in a young life . I was so fortunate to find yet another gem worth more than her weight in gold . we have now been married 26 years and looking forward to more fun of life as time goes by . 19 years to be married is such a short time . and we went through some hard times but leaned on one and another and made it just fine . she died at 42 years not enough time really . now me and the present wife look to help as much as we can family members who need help, not any gigantic monetary help but enough . I look forward to the end of life but not with a zeal for sure but I know where I am going and that is the real key to peace and contentment . If I die tomorrow I know I have had a great life . The best is yet to come ! yes .
solipslip| 1.7.11 @ 4:40PM
Perusha aka lil brujo-
I know you're excited by all the epiphanies you've experienced consuming all that Don Juan has to offer and the proving connections in current science. Your predilection for indulging in arrogance shows a tonal out of balance. Might I suggest some gazing and possibly some not-doings.
Zinka Milanov| 1.7.11 @ 9:50PM
Has Don Juan ever been mentioned before in the print or online AmSpec? I remember that in the mid(19)70s Maharaj Ji said that the Peace Bomb was about to explode, and then the little guru disappeared and hasn't been heard from since, but Lena Lovitch also went away from us.
Rawb | 1.10.11 @ 1:11AM
I still have my teeth and all of my hair, happily married to a woman 18 years my junior, have always managed to duck at the right times have authored a number of books, painted lots of pictures, am far from baggy and saggy and at 73 am sending out invitations to my upcoming 100th birthday party. Years ago I listened to that Shavian dictum of..."choose your parents wisely." Good genes and choosing a profession one loves goes a long way toward healthy and happy days. An occasional wee dram of good malt doesn't hurt.
Adidas | 8.11.11 @ 5:57AM
is good
العاب بنات | 4.10.12 @ 12:27PM
Well, it's good knowledge. When old people are angry in droves over liberal policy you can no longer blame it on their "grumpiness and thank you