Dealing With Old Age

I agree there are soooooo many forums for new parents, pregnancy etc but this area (which with an ageing population is only getting a moer important & needed one what is there????

Right. Great suggestion. Will work on creating an Aging Forum soon.

While we are all waiting to have a forum created on the subject of dealing with aging and old age readers here might enjoy my comment, my prose-poem, on a relevant film on the subject.-Ron Price, Tasmania
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RETIRED AND AGE 66: About Schmidt
THE INIMITABLE JACK NICHOLSON

About Schmidt is a 2002 American drama film directed by Alexander Payne starring Jack Nicholson as Warren Schmidt and Hope Davis as his daughter Jeannie. In 2003 he received a Golden Globe for his screenplay for About Schmidt which also won the Writers Guild of America Award for Best Adapted Screenplay. The film is loosely based on the 1996 novel with the same title by Louis Begley.

By 1996, as Begley was getting that novel published, I had my eye on an early retirement at age 55. By 2002 I had retired and taken a sea-change. When I saw this film on TV in 2010 I had been fully retired from FT, PT and much of my casual-volunteer work in the Baha'i community for five years. I watch a little TV after a day of reading and writing, research and journalism, editing and independent scholarship. I do this watching after midnight while I have a late night snack.

The soporific effects of TV, the alpha waves—so I am told—induced, help me turn off my brain and set up the conditions for a good night of sleep. Occasionally a tasty-movie comes on. About Schmidt was such a visual delight, but after an hour I had to go to bed. In the morning I read the rest of the story on the internet and decided to write this prose-poem.-Ron Price with thanks to Wikipedia, 5 October 2010.

Thank you, Alexander, for your dark humour &
the satirical depiction of American society.
I must, say, though, I could not help laugh.
There’s a lot of dark humour in Australia &
I’ve lived Downunder for nearly forty years!

I’m 66, too, just like Warren Schmidt. He & I
shared many things in-common which I won’t
go into here. But after a few laughs and some
reflection on this movie and my life, a prose-
poem seemed like a good thing to put down.

The evening of one’s life presents a new ball-
game: 60 to 100 has another set of challenges
to the 20 to 60 package if, well, one lives
that long...At 66 my second package has just
begun and I thank the inimitable-famous Jack
Nicholson for his entertainment and delight!

Ron Price
5 October 2010