The United Nations Assembly has declared October 1 as the day to recognize older people. The theme is to help them adapt to the digital age.
Who needs it? Aging sucks!
I’m long past the stage of adapting.
Back in the day when computers came with DOS (Disc Operating System), I learned how to use it and taught my three daughters how to use it, well before schools brought computer science into the classroom to learn about things like “save changes” and “delete”.
(As an afterthought now, years later, I see my daughters leaving me in the dust when it comes to internet know-how. They design websites, promote and teach via Zoom, and give me help when I need it.)
So I survived digitization well before the UN decided to help us seniors get through it.
I’m into an age beyond that stage. I’m plopping stories about my life into a website that my daughter Lara designed for me. They are my memoirs, my legacy.
But I sit too long at the computer, so my legs fill with water and swell.
Like I said, aging sucks. Getting in and out of the car is difficult. Walking renders me breathless. Aging brings the realization that soon I will be dead.
I wish I could live on to see what the world is like 50 years from now.
My heart sang when my oldest Grandson got married and two years later when my first Great Granddaughter arrived. They and the rest of my family going down three generations now will have something to read about their ancestor.
I think the UN missed the boat. The theme should have been “Write Your Memoirs”, and learn quickly how to use the computer to record your life stories for your Children and Grandchildren.
Maybe recording memoirs is inherent in the theme of adapting to the digital age, but the importance of life stories should have come first.