All Going South...

[allenlondon]

“Old age is an adventure in uselessness, loss of control, being nobody and giving up everything.” The challenge is to see which new experiences of decay and decline you’re able to welcome – since they will, in any case, be showing up at your door.

A paragraph from Oliver Burkeman’s Guardian column today, in which he writes that true freedom means embracing all of life, not just the good bits.

[Rosie29]

Allen - that was a really lovely thread that you started and it generated a lot of warmth wisdom and humour. Thank you x

[Cloverjo]

Allenlondon, did you ever meet Alan Coren or Victoria or Giles?

[allenlondon]

Not the children, but yes to Alan. Charming, sociable, a 'nice' bloke all round. Such a loss to humanity.

A

[Barsel]

Also known as Cognitive Behaviour Therapy.

[ladybirder]

I agree with Rosie. The best thread on here in many a long day. I shall take note. Thank you.

[allenlondon]

Not so sure about the comparison to Cognitive Behavioural Therapy.

Isn’t CBT specifically intended to alleviate certain mental disturbances, whereas what Burkeman is writing about is the ABSENCE of ‘interventions’ and therapy, but a more Buddhist-like acceptance of The All.

Explain this to me, Barsel, if I’ve wrongly interpreted CBT.

A

[alavahalf]

Reading your opening statement something sprang to mind .. a verse written on a plaque I seen hanging on a customers wall, it was a retirement gift from his workmates ..

The Golden Years Have Come at Last ..

I cannot see ..
I cannot pee..
I cannot chew ..
I cannot screw.
My memory shrinks ..
My hearing stinks..
No sense of smell ..
I look like hell.
My bodies drooping ..
I got trouble pooping..
The Golden Years Have Come At Last.

The Golden Years Can Kiss My ASS.

[allenlondon]

Thanks Alava, rings far too many bells!

A thought: Wordsworth, who often missed the point while staring at clouds, came close in this:

“That though the radiance which was once so bright be now forever taken from my sight.
Though nothing can bring back the hour of splendor in the grass, glory in the flower.
We will grieve not,
rather find strength in what remains behind.”

[allenlondon]

Another thought on CBT, Barsel: CBT seems to be all about me me me (or you). Burkeman is outlining a way of thought that is about him, and her, and them. (Viz, I must cope with the fact that after 51 years Mrs A is not the sprightly young thing she was in 1969, but the point is that Mrs A must also cope with that, PLUS the fact that the fit young dude she hooked up with then is now a fat, half-blind old invalid.)

Not me me me, but her her her.

Harder to deal with, but worth it once you do.