One thing about living in a RetCom (retirement community) is that you know all the “old people” celebration days. A week or so ago, it was “Centenarians Day”. Six people in my RetCom are celebrating being over 100 years of age. I have run across several of them in the hallways during my two years here, and they don’t seem much different than the rest of us. But, since I can’t hear them and they are very likely anti-technology, I don’t know if that is really the case.

I certainly hope that I don’t live long enough to be a centenarian.

I know that if my mental and physical capacities continue to decline as they have in the last couple of years, I will almost certainly be a vegetable well before 100.

But maybe this is just another stage we go through when we think about aging. When we are thirty, sixty seems like old age. Then, when you are sixty, that number changes to 80. Now that I am quickly approaching my 78th year, maybe my definition of old age will soon be 100!

I remember another saying about dying, that might pop up for me when the time comes:

Everyone wants to get to Heaven, but no one wants to die to get there

Maybe when my time comes, I will fight it tooth-and-nail. I still remember the day before my wife died when she had her lucid time, she told me, “I don’t want to die!” Maybe I will be like that? But, I kinda doubt it. I certainly don’t want to go through all the pain and suffering that she did before death. That seemed senseless to me.

I am a person who tries to look at each day as a challenge, and an opportunity to

Think for Myself, Question Everything, and Never Stop Learning

(in case you don’t remember, that is the saying of my life and boldly shown in this blogs’ header)

When I can no longer do those three things, it’s time to meet my maker.

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Ok, let’s change gears a little bit here, and mention a few people who have refused to let go of the reins of power, despite their incapacity to do the job.

• Senator Mitch McConnell, at the age of 81, is showing his reduced mental capacity daily now. He needs to accept that fact, and let someone else take the reins of the dying Republican Party.
• Senator Dianne Feinstein, recently died at the age of 90, still clinging on to the power of the office. They say someone had to help her decide which button to push when voting during her final year. Her time had come and passed, but she refused to accept that fact.
• Ruth Bader Ginsberg, died at the age of 87, but refused to cede her Supreme Court seat even when she was struggling with metastatic pancreatic cancer. As a result, one of the things that defined her legacy was overturned by the person who occupied the Oval Office at the time of her death. Much of her legacy was destroyed by her stubborn struggle to hold on to the power of her office.

I am no longer in a position of authority, or anything else for that matter, but when my time comes, I hope I can gracefully let go of whatever shred of power I might have left.