To be clear, no gender or preference implications intended in the title, sissy is meant as one who is timid or faint of heart.
At seventy-three, I’m not particularly old, though statistically I’m approaching the average maximum. I do have two rare and chronic conditions, one neurological, the other pulmonary. Thankfully neither impacts cognition, though they do affect balance, endurance and energy. While my capability is probably better than many my age in some regards, it is no doubt less than typical overall. Over the past few years, I’ve seen abilities decline or vanish in many areas- work, music, walking and exercise among them. Age certainly exacerbates my ongoing disorders and I would be lying if I said that losing capacity is enjoyable. Although I’ve long despised hours of screen time, nostalgia and dwelling in the past, increasingly these are among the few pleasures remaining. Which is in part why this Substack site exists. Perhaps in some small way, my singular past experience or insight can be of benefit to someone.
Old age, incapacity, and death await us all, inevitably, even the luckiest among us. As we age, we increasingly witness, helplessly, as friends and family cope with the trials of disease and death, too often far too young. It is easy sometimes to forget how incredibly lucky we all are. First, the odds of our unique genetic identities existing at all are minuscule and require countless improbable preceding events, over which we have no control. Add to that the fact that most of us are living in the healthiest, wealthiest, best educated and informed society that has ever existed. Even suffering under such circumstances requires immense good fortune.
It is both a blessing and a curse to be alive at such an interesting time, when the hopes of democracy, even the entire human endeavor and countless species are in dire peril. But we’ve known that everything is impermanent and all things must pass. Eventually, even the most accomplished or famous among us will be forgotten and nothing capable of memory or even imagination will remain. We know that this universe is immense, if not infinite. We have no evidence that nonexistence is any better or worse than existence. After all, we did not exist for billions of years and presumably will not exist for billions more. Or perhaps we misunderstand time or existence. Maybe we always (or never) have existed or will exist. Deep 😉 ! We might as well enjoy our flashing visit while and if we can, doing what we can to help those less fortunate.