I've just endured another birthday, and my thoughts about birthdays and the celebration thereof prompted my first foray into Blogging Country. I gather a Blog is something like an online journal, so I decided to share my thoughts on aging. At my age - I was born in the year that George VI wa crowned - birthdays are a reminder that I've been around for a long time, and I don't really see the need to celebrate that fact. Getting old isn't an accomplishment; it's a simple matter of not dying! Age is no guarantee of wisdom. I've met people my age who are sillier than three year olds, and I've also met fifteen year olds who display remarkable maturity and wisdom. Besides, while our society pays lip service to respecting age, in truth society - North American society, anyway - is rife with agism. There's a general understanding that if one is 65 or older one is no longer capable of working for a living, of managing one's affairs without help, or even making decisions without everyone in the family shoving in his/her oar. I remember my uncle, a fine physician and surgeon, who despaired of the fact that while he was aged up to 64 years and 364 days he was considered fit to practice medicine, but on the 365th day, he was no longer competent to do so! My son, whom I dearly love, just as he loves me, I know, seems to feel that I should sell my house and move into a 55+ apartment building. "You'll be with people your own age," is the burden of his song. My response, firmly stated and emphatic, is "Who wants to live with people one's own age? How boring would that be?" As it is, I live next door to a couple young enough to be my children, and their 20 year old son, and we get along fine. One of my former students lives just across the street and we're good neighbours, and I enjoy watching youngsters walking past my house on their way to the school just a block away. I get a little ticked with people who believe that getting older entitles them to respect. Respect is earned, and if someone wasn't worthy of respect at age 50, it's highly unlikely that he or she is any more worthy of respect just because birthday #75 rolled around. As Einstein once observed, there are only two things that are infinite: the universe and human stupidity. I've met a lot of stupid old people in my time. Longevity hasn't taught them that racism, sexism, agism (in this case it's reverse agism, the assumption that all young people are a waste of space), bigotry - whether religious, ethnic or political - is indicative of a narrow mind. On the other hand, having continued to breathe for 73 years and by dint of waking up every morning, I've decided I've earned the right to say what I think, so I call the bigots, the reverse agists, the racists and the sexists on their stupid remarks. This stance may not be a great way to win friends and influence people, but I have all the friends I need, and I don't care about influencing others, just in being true to myself! Here endeth my first blog.