life and getting old

 In today's world we have some idea of people that are all around the world. We generally obsess over our own situation, but we're aware that there are different cultures nationalities and races all around the world and have incredibly different experiences. They sleep approximately 8 hours a night. They are all born as babies and go through the same childhood development stages and we all go through. They're awake approximately 16 hours a day. they eat two to three meals a day. They have personal hygiene. At some point they generally buy into a religious system. By the time a person reaches puberty, they have some similar expectations about life, but how those expectations will be carried out maybe drastically different in different parts of the world.

Throughout life some similarities carry over regardless of where you are. Generally people get married, work, have kids, get old and die.

So why does life look so different in different parts of the world? Some people live without plumbing sewage or electricity in their homes. In other countries the basic necessities are given. Everyone with any interest at all will have a decent place to live and most of the creature comforts of the modern world. Even in third world countries many of the people there still live somewhat first world lives. They have toilets, running water and some basic electricity. These things may not always work consistently but they work well enough.

Many people that move to America stay here, but some move back home or move somewhere else. I've talked to some people who have moved here from other countries, and generally they say that freedom is greater in America than other places.

The cities in any country are a big negative. Anytime you get too many rats in the maze it gets ugly. Things can go bad anywhere, but the cities are sort of made for things to go bad. If there's any sort of breakdown in the infrastructure then you're going to be in serious trouble in the city. If you're away from the city, then generally the infrastructure May fail, but you can still sit in the dark and be safe. In the city there's going to be looting, murder, rape and generally a breakdown of civilization when things go wrong.

Not sure what any of that has to do with stages of life. Anywhere on the planet there are basic stages of life. My take is that where people treat each other with respect and the government kills bad guys quickly life can go on in a reasonably decent fashion. People are polite and live relatively peaceful lives. What messes up things is when there's some screwed up part of a society at some particular stage of life. Now some societies are just screwed up at all stages of life. But for instance right now America gets screwed up in old age. My experience with old age here so far is everybody wants to know how you're going to pay for your medical benefits and where are they going to stick you if you can't take care of yourself. It's getting fairly uncommon for family members to take care of their aging parents or relatives. They get stuck in a rest home where they generally deteriorate and die. The most common alternate system is it the elderly live with their families or with a younger generation that takes care of them. They're really disgusting thing about getting old is nobody wants to get old, nobody wants other people taking care of them, we all want to live independently and be productive and die in our sleep. But in America we've gone down this rather bizarre path where old people are stuck into retirement centers and care facilities. The people working there want to do a good job but if you just sit for a few minutes and think carefully about what it's like to work around old dying people everyday day in and day out it's got to get old. Get it? Old... Ha.  Ha.   Ha.

So that's just one example of where America is messed up in old age, but almost every society is messed up somewhere. And there are some societies that are messed up everywhere. It's a mess. The different stages of life are a struggle.

There have been several times of my life when I thought I might be headed towards some sort of disability. I've always prayed Jesus I'm here to do what you want me to do. If I end up disabled then I'm going to be doing less. You're in charge, you decide. So up to this point I've always gotten back in the saddle and rode on down the road. I've always been thankful. The older you get the more you watch old people. We Hear about people dying of heart attacks and cancer, and every once in a while you start thinking, Gee, a massive heart attack doesn't sound so bad in old age.

I read that men in Russia generally die around age 65 from alcohol poisoning, and women generally die around age 74. Once you get to be my age which is in my sixties it starts sounding like maybe they've gone down the right path. Living to be 80 plus years old is not any fun. You're running back and forth to the doctor constantly. You have all kinds of aches and pains. It's highly likely you're going to get cancer once or twice. You see these advertisements of old couples out playing golf or sailing on their beautiful 30 foot sailboat, but the reality is quite different. 

I live in America and I'm in my 60s, it would be fun to be doing something productive but it has really been nice to just take a break. If that break just happens to go on for the next 20 years till I drop dead that might not be so bad either. Just to let everybody know, it's way more fun to get up and do whatever you want, than to go to a job that you hate. We all try to put a :-) on it but nobody likes their boss and generally we're not all that thrilled with our coworkers. There's all kinds of egos involved and quite often the goal in the workplace isn't clearly defined or people have differing ajendas.

At times younger people say if I didn't have a job I don't know what I would do with myself. Well let me tell you what you would do with yourself, you would find hobbies that you actually enjoy. If you want to work on a project then it's completely up to you when the project will get done and what it will look like. If you decide you want to take the day off the week off or the month off and go somewhere or do something different you can do it. You don't have to have tons of money to live a simple life assuming you're healthy. 

It's a good idea to have Jesus in the driver's seat. Let Jesus decide.

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