Beech Tree News Network

I may be the only one in our region who didn’t know this: National Senior Citizens Day is August 21. It’s an observance, not a holiday. In 1988, former President Ronald Reagan declared August 21 to be National Senior Citizens Day. He wanted to honor senior citizens who had made contributions in their communities and to increase awareness of social, health, and economic issues affecting them (http://www.timeanddate.com/holidays/us/senior-citizens-day). What a nice idea.

Who are our senior citizens? People in the United States who are more than sixty years of age are commonly referred to as senior citizens or seniors. “People are said to be senior citizens when they reach the age of sixty or sixty-five because those are the ages at which most people retire from the workforce” (http://legal-dictionary.thefreedictionary.com/Senior+citizens). Additionally as many know, some businesses offer customers over age 55 senior discounts.

Many have expressed thoughts about aging. Some of those are listed below:
•    Long lives aren't natural. We forget that senior citizens are as much an invention as toasters or penicillin. --Douglas Coupland (http://www.brainyquote.com/quotes/keywords/senior_citizens.html)
•    And because of these programs like Medicare, Medicare prescription drugs, Social Security, we now have the healthiest and wealthiest group of senior citizens that the world has ever seen. This is a continuing commitment to that. --James T. Walsh
(http://www.brainyquote.com/quotes/keywords/senior_citizens.html)
•    How old would you be if you didn’t know how old you was? --Satchel Paige (http://www.seniorhealthmemos.com/2012/02/16-inspiring-quotes-about-aging...)
•    Those who think they have no time for bodily exercise will sooner or later have to find time for illness. --Edward Stanley (http://www.seniorhealthmemos.com/2012/02/16-inspiring-quotes-about-aging...)
•    By the time you’re eighty years old you’ve learned everything. You only have to remember it. --George Burns (http://www.seniorhealthmemos.com/2012/02/16-inspiring-quotes-about-aging...)
•    At age 20, we worry about what others think of us. At age 40, we don’t care what they think of us. At age 60, we discover they haven’t been thinking of us at all. --Ann Landers (http://www.seniorhealthmemos.com/2012/02/16-inspiring-quotes-about-aging...)
•    Aging is not lost youth but a new stage of opportunity and strength.” --Betty Friedan (http://www.seniorhealthmemos.com/2012/02/16-inspiring-quotes-about-aging...)

I also asked friends and family their thoughts about aging or being a senior. Their replies were:
•    I don’t like it!
•    I’m glad to get older. It’s God’s gift.
•    You live…then you die. Worry is pointless. Just enjoy the ride while you are here!
•    I’m not ready for the alternative. No matter how open minded and graceful/grateful I try to be about aging, I’m not particularly liking it. Oh sure, there are a few pluses, but waking every morning with a new malady or one that hurts a little more than yesterday is not the best beginning for my day.
•    I’m thankful that I’ve lived this long, and I’m happy that I’m as healthy as I am. I can drive, go to church functions, and take care of my house and myself. I enjoy being home. I can do more things than before I retired. I enjoy my friends and family and can help other people more. If people want to travel, they should do so soon after retirement while their spouse is living. As we get older, we get tired faster. It feels like time passes quicker, too. I would tell people to keep being active and don’t give up. I’ve enjoyed all of life.
•    I think about what will happen to my kiddos and grandchildren a lot more as I age. I pray they are safe and taken care of.
•    I do not like it. I feel I have a lot of knowledge about many things, and it has no worth to anyone. But, I do feel peace based on the fact that I have survived to be this old. I’m thankful for my health, thankful I am still independent. So, bottom line, I seek happiness on a daily basis, but sometimes think “If only….”
•    I’m grateful to wake up every morning. I’m thankful for health, my children and grandchildren. I’m hopeful for our country.

Someone said that aging is not for sissies. Even though I’ve found that to be true, I like Robert Browning’s words: “Grow old along with me! The best is yet to be” (http://www.seniorhealthmemos.com/2012/02/16-inspiring-quotes-about-aging...). Additionally, I like Isaiah 46:4 (NIV) when Yahweh/God said to the Israelites: “Even to your old age and gray hairs I am he, I am he who will sustain you. I have made you and I will carry you; I will sustain you and I will rescue you.” Those words contain comfort and promise.