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This will happen to you when you get old.


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In the early and mid 1970s I used to work with Jack H, a very annoying old person. Although I was paid until 6 pm I could go home almost an hour early if my work was finished and as long as Jack finished his work. But Jack didn’t want to go home early and he dragged his work out until 6. We worked in a place where there was little natural light and after an hour’s walk home there was little sunshine left to enjoy and I blamed missing an hour’s sunlight on Jack.

I looked him up on the net the other day expecting to see an obituary from the 1980s but he was still alive according to the local paper in the mid 1990s. What surprised me is that I no longer felt any animosity at all to Jack. Part of this can be put down to “Time heals all wounds”. But I think there is another factor involved.

When you are old you don’t care so much about what other people do and say even if it involves you. For example, if someone on the street insulted me I would just walk on, but as I young man I would have challenged them. It’s not because I’m scared of getting hurt. It’s just that I don’t really care what they say about me..

It’s a bit like that on messageboards. There are always those who tell you that you are wrong and stupid even though I think I am probably right, but I no longer feel the need to challenge them. It’s a bit like the first verse of that great poem The Last Word by Matthew Arnold :


Let the long contention cease!
Geese are swans, and swans are geese.
Let them have it how they will!
Thou art tired: best be still.
 

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22 minutes ago, Ewe Ram said:

Now I’m old I see what some people write (or hear what they say) and think ‘hmm really’. Then I get on with my day. The burning desire to put them right has long gone. 

You should meet my 94 year old dad. He’s become more argumentative than ever and will pretty much argue about anything. 😀

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56 minutes ago, Tamworthram said:

You should meet my 94 year old dad. He’s become more argumentative than ever and will pretty much argue about anything. 😀

My dad's gone the same way.

I'd never really heard him express any strong political opinions until recently, now he's banging on about immigration, scroungers and such like.  

It like he's forgotten he's married to an immigrant, in fact he married the same one twice ffs!

 

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