Ages of Man

The other day he got embroiled in a discussion of what was the ages a human being goes through. Infancy through young Adulthood seemed easily defined. But when the discussion turned to middle age and old age the discussion got murky, not only because the discussion was talking about the ending of youth and the beginning of old age but the difference between the developed world and the undeveloped. In the United States the average age for living is around 80 while it is considerably less say in Kenya or India. This is the reason that it seemed to him that all one had to do to find middle age is divide the average living age by two, which would make USA middle age around 40 and Kenya around 30,  India 33. However various 'experts" feel that middle age defined for the USA can be ages, 35-55, 40-60, 45-65.  These definitions then say middle age must be calculated by the way the body and mind starts to deteriorate so even though the average life expectancy is 80 one can be middle aged at 65 giving only 15 years of life expectancy until old age and death. But the very fact that life expectancy can be so divergent between developed and undeveloped countries leads one to the conclusion that those with greater wealth who can live healthier lives, can and will do so even in countries that are undeveloped. Not only does wealth play a role but how the populace conducts itself also plays a role. Even the rich can smoke, eat the wrong foods, drink too much, dissipate the body through sexual excess. Example of such is unprotected sex while bedding down every Tom, Dick and Mary.

Also playing a role in life expectancy and therefore the mid life period are genetics. Those with Huntington's disease certainly will experience their middle age much sooner than those who do not have that disease. What he was finding out was there was no real definition of middle age although our researchers and medical men seem intent on defining it.  The following is a quote from a New York Times' Book Review:

  "IN OUR PRIME

The Invention of Middle Age

By Patricia Cohen

Illustrated. 306 pp. Scribner. $25.

Despite the fact that researchers have been studying middle age intensively for decades, the term itself seems to have no fixed definition. Nearly any span between 40 and dementia appears to qualify, depending in part on whether we’re talking about ourselves (“But I feel just the same as I did when I was 20”) or all those people who show up at our college reunions (“Everyone looks so old”). But surely the elasticity of the concept is its best feature. After all, not much follows middle age except joining the ranks of the ancients — or, as geriatric specialists now say, “the old old.” (Perhaps they don’t intend to evoke the drumbeats of doom with that repetition, but otherwise what does it mean? A life stage so nice they named it twice?)

Not only is middle age hard to pin down, but Cohen, a reporter for The New York Times, points out that it didn’t even exist as a category until about halfway through the 19th century. Before then, she writes, “age was not an essential ingredient of one’s identity.” Life had markers like marriage, parenthood and physical incapacity; one’s years per se were not the measure. This changed with industrialization and the growth of cities, when age became a useful means of segmenting the population. Children who earlier studied all together in a one-room schoolhouse, for instance, were divided into grades by age. Birthday greetings became popular. By 1900, when the census began asking Americans their exact date of birth — instead of packing people into 10-year compartments — we were a nation thoroughly aware of how old we were."

He thought it was interesting that the demographic community has only used "middle age" as a category for a little more than 100 years. The more he researched this age category the more he became convinced the age span quoted of some 20 years, say age 40 to age 60 had no real meaning except in generalities, specifically each person between conception and death aged at different levels and the current pot of statistics didn't break out the differences between income levels, ethnicity, genetics, life style and everything else that influences the ageing process.

He guessed it made it easier for the medical community to guess, they call it diagnose, causes when they can attribute something to the ageing process but one may not be losing his or her sex drive due to the loss of testosterone, or menopausal changes due to the fact that the patient has reached a certain age but rather to other causes. It is so easy to chalk up certain illness and changes in ones body or mind due to ageing when it may have nothing to do with that. Therefore he came to the conclusion that he would no longer use the term "middle aged" rather "young" and "getting older" and "old" acknowledging that a person loses bone density, reflexes slows and all that stuff but with each person at different rates which means there is only a statistical middle but no real span covering it. Which means from conception to death we progressively age with each person reaching different stages at different times. This means some one can be old at the young age of 20 while one can be young at the ripe old age of 50 or more.

      

This Mysterious World We Live In

Have you noticed recently how wide children's eyes get when they ask a question about the world we live in? Their eyes get wider as we try to answer the question because it is met with awe and wonder. The child has not reached the stage where everything is taken for granted so that the wonders of this world is kind of by passed as though it is quite ordinary. Many times attention is diverted to the other worlds that we have not experienced such as the after-life. We wonder if any after-life exists and if it does what is it like and wonder at the concoctions we come up with. Many of us lose that child-like wonder of the exceptional world in which we live.

Consider the fact that we live not on a flat area. We live on a orb which is spinning furiously around on an axle propelling it on a journey around another orb which is giving us light, heat, vitamins, the ability to survive. We are placed exactly the distance we need to be to survive, too close and we burn, too far and we freeze. With all this spinning we remain glued to the earth by a force we call gravity, and we seem all to be stationary because I guess everything is moving at the same rate simultaneously. You would think we would be thrown off this merrily spinning orb and nothing like buildings could survive. The closest we ever came to getting an idea of what this might be like is when we were kids and we spun ourselves around until we became dizzy and fell to the ground. Unfortunately vertigo can have the same effect and surviving become a real chore.

Another mystery is the fact that everything is liquid including humans. What we consider solid is solidified chemicals. The discovery of genetics which has only come into it's own over the last hundred years or so shows we are all a product of DNA, a mixture of liquids that without we wouldn't exist. The human body is made of skin, bones, muscle, fat, bone and blood which is being pumped throughout our bodies by a muscle that can keep pumping for over a hundred years without ever breaking down but if it does it can be repaired to keep pumping. All the solid parts of the body is really solidified chemicals. Even our thought process is electro-chemical with very intricate connections that if disrupted can cause havoc. With nerves that run through every part of our body, and a spine that is fully connected we send messages from the tip of our toes to the top of our head, a brain encased in a bony protection called a skull. It is believed by some that a few can muster the electro-chemical charges to such a degree that they can effect changes from within to another thousands of miles away. All of this is quite mysterious wouldn't you say?

There are beautiful colors all around us which brighten our world and for most of us can be seen and enjoyed making our world all the more brighter and enjoyable. The ability to enjoy a beautiful aroma that makes our taste buds become excited and our appetites come alive. How about a beautiful Rose, with an aroma that excites that senses. All this is great chemistry.

The greatest chemistry is that brings humans together, a mother loves her children always for the most part. The father who works night and day for his family. The chemistry that excites lovers into being drawn together to experience the joys and intimacies that only love can bring. Love being something that exists outside of us, in the air and inside if us, that is known when the touch brings it all together between, two people. All very mysterious wouldn't you say?

The wonder of the world we live in is all around us and many of us after we hit a certain age just accept it all as if it is very ordinary but the truth is we live in a very extraordinary world.

      

God's Messengers aren't always Angels!!!

.I received this from a dear, old friend and I thought it was worth a blog because of the intrinsic truth it spoke.

Take it in and let it germinate in your innermost being and thank God for the people he sent to you while his Angels were a little busy with other things.

People come into your life for a reason, a season or a lifetime. When you know which one it is, you will know what to do for that Person.. When someone is in your life for a REASON, it is usually to meet a need You have expressed. They have come to assist you through a difficulty, to provide you with Guidance and support, To aid you physically, emotionally or spiritually. They may seem like a godsend and they are. They are there for the reason you need them to be. Then, without any wrongdoing on your part or at an inconvenient time, This person will say or do something to bring the relationship to an End. Sometimes they die. Sometimes they walk away. Sometimes they act up and force you to take a stand. What we must realize is that our need has been met, our desire Fulfilled, their work is done. The prayer you sent up has been answered and now it is time to move on. Some people come into your life for a SEASON, because your turn has Come to share, grow or learn. They bring you an experience of peace or make you laugh. They may teach you something you have never done. They usually give you an unbelievable amount of joy.. Believe it, it is real. But only for a season. LIFETIME relationships teach you lifetime lessons, Things you must build upon in order to have a solid emotional Foundation.. Your job is to accept the lesson, Love the person and put what you have learned to use in all other Relationships and areas of your life. It is said that love is blind but friendship is clairvoyant. Thank you for being a part of my life, Whether you were a reason, a season or a lifetime.

The Real Heroes May Not Be The Celebrities

When I was a little kid I became immersed in Baseball. I wanted to play it. I wanted to read about it. I wanted to hear my Uncles, Cousins and older relatives talk about it. Whenever there was discussion of their favorite teams there was always laughter and pride as though the teams represented them personally. When I was about nine years old I was taken to a Yankee game by an older cousin, who by the way was a wounded warrior only a year or two later as he was almost killed in The Battle of The Bulge, a great WW II landmark battle that helped change the direction of the world forever. Guys like Joe DiMaggio were in the Army and playing center-field was a player named Johnny Lindell, a big tall guy who came up as a pitcher in 1940 but was converted to an outfielder because he could hit and he was available for some reason from being drafted into the service. I remember very little about that game except Lindell made a shoestring catch and did a tumble sauce and came up on his feet running to the infield with his glove hand held high showing he held onto the ball and the crowd was on their feet cheering, whistling and very happy. From that day on Johnny Lindell was my hero and I wore his number, 27, on my uniform. He played on some great Yankee teams into the 1950's but never was a star like Dimage just a real good player and my hero. When I played stick-ball or softball I imagined I was Johnny Lindell, knew all his statistics. Eventually he became older and finished his career with the Pittsburgh Pirates as a knuckle-ball relief pitcher. He disappeared from the back sport pages until he finally was taken out of the game for good. My hero had clay feet like all of us and my dreams could keep him alive but the reality is his time came and went as all time must come and go. But I still see that fabulous catch on that sunny day some 70 years ago, that will never die, that is until I will.

Movie goers, TV watchers, theatre goers all immerse themselves in the play, series, characters and actors that bring these entertainments to life. We lose ourselves as the story develops and the characters take on flesh and blood by the actors who portray them. The realities are lost in our fantasies which many times actually let us forget that the actors and the characters they play are not the same people.  Humphrey Bogart lives forever as the tough guy who came up from the streets but in reality he came from a well to do well educated family. But can we separate him from Rick in "Casablanca" who loved Ilsa (Ingrid Bergman) and walked off with Claude Raines (Louie), saying "This could be the start of a great friendship."?  He was the tough guy who lived a hard life, drank, smoked was invincible. But reality crept in and he died from lung cancer in his fifties yet he will live forever in the characters he created on screen and what we as the public created off screen. AND What about Clark Gable? His signature role, for which he did NOT win an academy award, was Rhett Butler in "Gone With The Wind" who told Scarlet O'Hara  (Vivian Leigh) at the end of the picture when she was pleading with him to stay, "Frankly, my dear. I don't give a damn!".  Dashing, an adventurer who could not lose even when the odds were stacked against him. In real life he had failed marriages, wore false teeth and the actresses complained of very bad breath they were forced to endure in close-up love scenes.

My point is that we need diversions from the miseries of our own lives so we can function until there is no need to function anymore. These plays, stories, teams, performers, yes athletes are performers and nothing more, all give us a respite from the ruts we occasionally find ourselves in. By the way Politicians are also performers with whom we get intimately involved with because what they do does actually affect us greatly. But we are disappointed when our heroes have feet of clay. We forget that only the plays are make believe. The sporting contests are miniature plays being played within the confines of the rules, time, innings and so on but when over the performers live their lives, they are no longer playing a game for us. We are disappointed when one does drugs, or gets involved with a beauty or the beauty gets involved with her boy toy.

A little make-believe is OK but when it becomes something that rules our lives perhaps it is time to step back and put our heroes and the make-up stories they create and we create about them aside and step back into reality. Instead of admiring a love story on the screen, have a real one yourself. Make the star of your fantasy your spouse, your lover. Instead of wanting to jump tall buildings at a single bound be happy with a glass of wine and your lover in your arms. Instead of those Johnny Lindells you remember making that head over heels catch maybe remember your father who always got up and went to work so you could eat and be clothed and your mother who always had a meal ready for you while she made sure you wore clean underwear just in case you were in an accident. Don't forget our heroes who make us dream but while remembering them don't forget who the real heroes in our lives are.