To Old to Run?

Increasingly, I find myself reading about someone or something that has quit working, or just croaked.  And then, upon checking, it turns out they/it was younger than me.  For example, Gordon Lightfoot, the amazing singer-songwriter, just died at the age of 84 of “natural causes”.  To be fair, some folks have been croaking at well past my age of 88. But, many/most are younger.

We attended a party the other day, and, as we were sitting and chatting, someone asked, “So, how long have you been married?”  And I replied. “Coming up on 68 years this July.” And she looked baffled and said, while laughing, “So, what, you were 3 when you got married?” And then we all laughed. See, nobody else in the group was past maybe their mid-50s.

88?? Who in the hell is 88 and still wandering around, drinking wine and still driving home? It doesn’t even seem right to me.  I mean, I don’t feel like I’m in my 30’s or 40’s, but 88? Nah!.

Now we do know folks who are older. We have a friend, Sidney Tynan, who lives in Rhode Island by herself at the tender age of (almost) 102.  And she still writes a monthly paper called her “Country Newsletter”.  We knew Sidney from our days spent in India during the mid-1960s. And we have remained friends.  And we have another friend from India, now in his 90s, who lives in Florida and still works with his artist wife. And then, we have our friend who lives in Australia and who worked in India with us. He is just 4 months older, but he always makes believe he is younger.

So what does it feel like to be 88? Well, it really is just one day at a time. Mostly, one day resembles the other. Oh we have some variation. We both go to work out three days a week.  And we go out to shop on Fridays and Saturdays (the latter to a local Farmers Market). And Carol works with our local Literacy Council teaching folks to speak better English.  And then Carol spends a lot of her time making quilts for sick kids at our local children’s hospital.  Me?? I don’t do too much. I write this piece occasionally and I play around with vaguely artsy creations. I used to appear at local Art Walks, but they kind of died out during COVID.  Yeah, COVID killed off some nice affairs.  So I find myself reading a bit more and playing on Facebook and Instagram. No, I don’t do Twitter—too mindless, even for me.

One thing I am finding increasingly, is my impatience with Republicans. I cannot believe that I actually voted for a republican for my first vote—Dwight Eisenhower instead of Adlai Stevenson.  But now, I look at almost all republicans and think, Oh God, they are stuck in their minds in 1936 Germany, looking for their very own Adolph Hitler. And who is they wish to kill? Well, anyone trying to gatecrash their way into America from South America—really any people of color, though. And they seem to despise women, but they have to be a bit more careful there, since they tend to marry women.  Oh, and they really hate anyone in the LGBTQ community. They will do almost anything to make their lives miserable.

Now, being 88, I have difficulty with all this hatred. I realize I’m supposed to be far rightwing, hating along with the worst of them. But I’m just not like that, and I am having increasing difficulty with all these hatreds. I guess Donald Trump triggered all this awful stuff and, well he is old, just not as old as me, or even as Joe.

And so I now have to come to grips with this old people thing.  It would seem that the two main characters planning on running for President in 2024 are Donald Trump, age 76, and Joe Biden, age 80. Yeah, yeah, I know that Ron DeSantis is planning a run, and he is only 44. So, maybe I ought to be reconsidering. But no, DeSantis is young, but he is a young Idiot-Malenfant.  He seems to have joined the weird world of Republican Hate groups. So, No, he is not a candidate I might take seriously.

But How about Joe? Well, he would be 82 on taking office, and 86 on finally retiring from Office, assuming he remains alive.  OK, so I’m 88, and I will be way older than Joe, assuming I continue to remain alive.  And I am hearing a lot of jokes about Joe’s age.  He sometimes seems to stumble a bit in speaking and is not exactly agile physically. Still, he is pretty good for his age. And I am familiar with folks who succumb to things like dementia—my Mother for example. So, how can I continue to consider voting for Joe? Well, first, any prediction you might have for Joe, would be hovering above Donald Trump. Yeah, he’s a few years younger, but he begins as an idiot, whereas Joe still has a functional brain.

But suppose Joe begins to slip partway through his term of Office? Well, for one thing, he has a wife who would be positioned to rein him in. But even more importantly, he would have a Vice President (Kamala maybe?) capable of slipping into the position smoothly. Plus, we have all these highly paid folks who would be working for him who would also likely notice should Joe begin to slip. See, that’s the thing about an American Presidency, as distinct from Russia’s Dictator, Vlad. Over there, I assume someone would have to step in and shoot Vlad. See, we have less drastic ways of “retiring” our leaders.

Now I, at the tender age of 88, still function pretty much the same as I did in my 60s or 70s. I think there has not been much deterioration in my brain functioning. And so, although I am well aware of the aging problems, I don’t yet see that as a major deterrent to Joe running for office.  Would I be happier were Joe only 70, rather than 80, well maybe.  And so, do I think maybe he should not run? Well, no I do not.  It still comes down to Joe Biden vs. whoever the republicans select to run against him. And they seem to have no leaders who are not of the Fascist mindset. I am not sure how or why the republican party as a whole has slipped into the world of 1936 Germany, but there it is. If we want to continue living in a democracy, then folks, we are stuck with the Democrats and likely, with Joe Biden. It is so split that I think we dare not vote for a republican for major national office.  I do not know any longer what happened to those thinking people, of ethical/moral character who were/are republican, but they all seem to have gone into their respective closets.  They are no longer available as aides and counselors helping to keep the American ship afloat.  Maybe someday, they will return and kick out the Trumps, Marjorie Taylor Greenes, Kevin McCarthys and Ron DeSantis’ of this world.

Ahh, that would be a wonderful world indeed.

Fond Hope Springs Eternal. And maybe I will still be alive to see that happening. Who knows??? The Shadow Knows.