Monday, October 11, 2010

 

Youth Afflicted


Dedicated to the young people I love…. and the not so young people I love. Ruby *o*

A few days ago I was speaking to loved ones. We were joking and animated using a wonderful techno invention called Skype. The youngest speaker made a loving comment about the Middle-aged speaker being “an old man.” I came back with the line that she was “YOUTH AFFLICTED!” Although we joked, there was plausible truth attached. It set me to ponder what it really meant to me to be physically young, and then to gradually age until… now I may be the world’s oldest human. Well at least on some days I am, when the bones, connective tissues, and creaking joints start to cuss’ n’ groan.”

I do ‘not’ believe youth is wasted on the young. I do believe that the young should never have to know an aging body that becomes diseased and hurts. Thank God my average, but always challenged by my pursuit of forever-education memory, is still holding up very well. When physically young, until my mid-thirties, I was a professional MAMBO dancer. Even then if the jobs (gigs) were doubles in a twenty-four hour span, I ached from sheer exhaustion. YET…. I could set up a professional stage wearing my full-length handmade beaded gowns and sneakers, and then break it down after our gigs were completed. Afterward, we had to pack up the car(s) with heavy instruments and electronic equipment. This comes after a full night’s entertaining labours, rush home to grab some sleep before doing my day job, cooking, and whatever else of the mundane had to be completed. YES, we really worked much too hard.
Being the only female in our orchesta, the guys joked that I was like a Silver-backed Gorilla.

Today if I tried doing all that, you would be visiting me in Rainbow through a psychic medium. ;-) All jokes and sarcasms aside, it is wonderful to be physically young and in excellent health. I cherish every moment of that endurance testing work. Enjoy your youth. Then, if your personal God allows, enjoy your golden years too. At best, life down here is very very short.
Comment: Betty wrote: = In answer to my 4 year old great-grandnephew's question as to why I have a mushy face, I told him that when he is 76 he can be lucky enough to have that too. I also showed him how heavy my eyelids could get and that they close like a door when I am sleepy and that he will be able to do that when he is 76. I wanted him to know that there are perks to getting older. They love when I tell them about my youth when we lived in caves and my dad had to go hunting for food while I stayed at home with my mom and watched her washing the rocks, one by one, by hand, because there were no washing machines or dryers in the Stone Age.

Comments:
We laughed out loud at your comment about doing too much now would land you in Rainbow. I am only forty and already feeling some of what you referred to with the creakings. Keep up the good writing. Even my kids love to read your blogs. Lucky for us, they aren't youth afflicted.
anon in NYC
 
Betty wrote: = In answer to my 4 year old great-grandnephew's question as to why I have a mushy face, I told him that when he is 76he can be lucky enough to have that too. I also showed him how heavy my eyelids could get and that they close like a door when I am sleepy and that he will be able to do that when he is 76. I wanted him to know that there are perks to getting older. They love when I tell them about my youth when we lived in caves and my dad had to go hunting for food while I stayed at home with my mom and watched her washing the rocks, one by one, by hand, because there were no washing machines or dryers in the Stone Age.
 
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