B"H
identification with, their parents ' ideals ; weird as they t hink us
to be. An understandably painful realization attacks the elderly;
not only their becoming insignificant to the child, more so, an
ene my from who m their grandchildren must be protected.
"Grandpa always stinks of piss." There is no physicality to the
pain although many psychoso matic sympto ms develop until
grandpa has a retinue of doctors from who m he receives advice
and treatment. Energy spent on these idle pursuits might best be
redirected to changing one 's perspective, his goal to enhance
interrelationships where it is most beneficial. Being unwanted
is disidentification, not pain, and can be treated only with
redirection into life : Hitch your wagon to the fondest star!
The process of aging has the benefit of reducing most
"factual" perceptions into scenarios of life's occurrences , that
he or she may repeat over and over to anyone willing to listen .
"Who am I, well as a teenager I excelled in math. Had I stuck
with it…" As one approaches the moment of death his concern
turns to what he has accomplis hed that will stand in his merit
upon his departure from the world of the living. It is very tedious
to live each mo ment with the anticipation and expectation that
benefit shall be forthco ming. W hatever good feelings were a
result from any relationship during one's life hold significance
only to the beholder. Fro m that viewpoint, there will always a n
image of his ego in the mirror, always contemplating what view
others hold of him or her. Little more than an exercise in futility
is to consider how people will reme mber you; it is not a measure
of personal worth. An assessment of personal worth can't be
achieved wondering who may be speaking about you whe n
you're long gone.
We might engage in small undertakings, think, and write
about the importance to "me," of the person with whom you like
to talk; food you like the taste of, how you might prepare it for
consumption, and maybe atte mpt to carry out the ideas. If I call
my children, there's always a message to export into their realm
of intellectual grasp. Feel the warmth or comfort of your soul
within the apparel of your physicality , listen to pleasant sounds,
and combine the forces of nature in productive creativity in
order to quench one's thirst for intellectual awareness.
Sociological welfare scientists are trained how to listen, to give
the individual a feeling what he says is important to you; to wit
giving someone that attention is referred to as the art of loving.
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