Going Out In Style
Lifestyle is one of those words we never heard when I was a kid. It probably took hold as more and more people identified what came to be called a "gay lifestyle," which was really just a dismissive stereotype. Eventually lifestyle became about one's place on the economic ladder, and everyone except the poor had one. Maintaining or improving one's lifestyle became obsessive, symbolized by how wide a screen television one could afford at a big box store, something else that didn't exist when I was a kid. Now people are getting frantic because the crumbling economy is threatening their lifestyle, and it's blamed on our leaders, who of course have no problem maintaining their lavish lifestyles. The sooner we can give up the notion of a lifestyle the quicker we can get on with enjoying our lives.
posted by John M Crowther @ 7:12 AM
8 Comments:
John, I am so old now that I can remember a time when people died so young they couldn’t even consider having a life-style let alone a life. The longer people live in our present society the more useless they become. I propose putting geriatrics to work, the way they did during the WPA and the Federal Theater projects. Seniors could clean up the highways, paint murals for post-offices and do productions of Shakespeare in the sticks. How about King Lear with a ninety year old king and a couple of sixty year old daughters?
Just got back on line after three days without power and 5 days without cable. Many trees down around here including one pin cherry in my back yard. I will have it cut up and turned into wood chips but I am at the end of a long waiting list.Busy painting from the sketchbook of the Croatia-Venice trip. Roger
Roger, there's nothing like being cut off from the outside world to discover how little we need it. But welcome back.
John... interesting cartoon! I watched I Am Legend the other night though I wish now I hadn't. Believing in the premise that we get what we focus on... I don't particularly like catastrophic end- of-the-world stories and this one, although far fetched, was disturbing to say the least. In a troubled world I reckon it's important to try to remain uplifted.
>>I propose putting geriatrics to work<<
Il Professore... there's been a changing of the guard here recently. Seniors (I prefer mature age people - grin) who just a few years back were made redundant in their prime and tossed unceremoniously onto the scrap heap, are now being picked up, dusted off and encouraged back into the workforce under the guise of bringing back "experience". I suspect this newfound respect has much to do with how difficult it now is to find anyone under a certain age who is willing to forgo "lifestyle"long enough to hold down a serious job not to mention a long term career.
I reckon if 30 is the new 20 like they say... then 80 must surely be the new 70... and 60 the new 50 and so on (two can play this game! LOL) With more older people out there getting things successfully done than ever before... why not?
It ain't over til the fat lady sings... and I hear she hasn't even been practising lately! LOL
Oops sorry John (it's a novel) :-)
Novels are good, Jean. :-) After a year and a half at this I'm only using 6% of the available space, which even War and Peace won't put a dent in.
To be honest I prefer "senior" to "mature age," which makes me sound like a bottle of wine. They've been doing that hiring seniors thing here too, but it runs to jobs like slinging burgers at McDonalds. Ugh.
Where are the kids then? McDonalds were once renowned for hiring under-agers!
"Seniors" probably does sound more innocuous... and let's face it no-one wants to be labelled anyway!
But I figure if and/or when the day comes... I won't mind being slapped with one of those funky, modern, classy yet understated labels that wine makers these days stick on their finer more well-rounded and rare vintages! ;-D (((hahahaha)))
Hey, I'm all for seniors or to use the more PC term ---the youth impaired-- to work McDonalds. Should the computers that run the cash registers go down they will know how to calculate change.
Touche professor! LOL
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