Mark Rudd, one of the leading lights of left-wing Sixties radicalism, comes to terms with mortality:
But Rudd acknowledges that his generation’s time is over. These days, Rudd said, he’s a liberal Democrat, not a radical. “I think being a radical’s a lot better than being liberal,” he told me. “I just don’t have the energy anymore.”
(Via Poulos.)
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I shouldn't say this, because I'm young enough that I'm don't have the actual experience to back what I'm about to say up. However, I am soooo not looking to forward to listening to the loud, annoying, self righteous boomers (not all boomers - just the loud, annoying, self-righteous ones) complain about getting old.
I have thought since I was very young that getting old should be about trading off - I get wiser, more peaceful and generally better as a human being and in return I have to give up looks, easy mobility and a life free of aches and pains. Not such a terrible trade off, I think. Not the best trade off I can think of, but better than keeping the youth and never getting the rest by a long shot.
But the way it seems to be catching some people off guard and reducing them to worrying about chins and joints rather than the bigger, better things in life seems wrong to me. Besides, if something (like being a radical) takes so much mental, emotional and spiritual energy to keep up that it is doused by the reality of age, that's probably a good sign that either you're not doing it right or that only the young were meant to have it anyways. IJS.
Every time I see a "Viva Viagra!" or Levitra commercial, I think, "Damn, I'm tired of the Baby Boomers aging." But they'll be with us for the next thirty or so years, popping them pills to keep their Aspidistras flying. Eternal youth and all that.
I'll be 41 next week, and while I don't suppose that counts as old, and while I do hate the way my body is starting to slow down, thicken up like pudding, and so on, overall I like getting older, for the same reason you do, Rebecca. If a genie were to offer me the body of a 25 year old, I'd be tempted -- but if he said, "You get the anxiety and restlessness of your 25 year old self in the deal," I'd tell him to get lost.
Every time I see a "Viva Viagra!" or Levitra commercial, I think, "Damn, I'm tired of the Baby Boomers aging." But they'll be with us for the next thirty or so years, popping them pills to keep their Aspidistras flying. Eternal youth and all that.
Posted by: Rod Dreher | February 9, 2008 7:26 AM
I hear ya, Rod! Those Viva Viagra ads are so silly. Degrading, if you ask me. But the commercials that REALLY kill me are the ones for Cyalis. You know, the attractive older couple, looking to make whoopie, keeps being interrupted by life's little annoyances - the neighbors drop by, the grandkids show up at the door, whatever. Thanks to the long lasting effects of Cyalis, though, our intrepid lovers ultimately end up side by side in some lovely, bucolic setting, holding hands... in matching clawfoot tubs! What's up with these matching outdoor bathtubs? Can someone please enlighten me?
For some of us, of course, the anxiety and restlessness is lifelong through no fault of our own ...
The commercials that are driving me nuts are the ones for Flomax to treat an enlarged prostate so that all these gracefully aging "guys" (never men) can run around the woods, ride bikes in the desert and bungee jump to their hearts content. I mean, come on - a 60 year old man is a man, not a guy. Heck, my 36 year old husband stopped being a guy a couple of years ago. Grow the flock up.
I also keep waiting for someone to come out and sucker punch Dennis Hopper in those annoying Ameriprise commercials.
Now those life alert commercials are what ads for old people should be - "help I've fallen and I can't get up!" Kidding. Kidding.
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