PHIL FITZPATRICK
TUMBY BAY - Our esteemed master of ceremonies at PNG Attitude turned 73 two days ago. That’s his allotted three score years and ten plus three and he’s still racing.
No, really, it’s amazing isn’t it? He doesn’t look a day over, umm…. Well, let’s forget that and just say he is as old as he feels.
Anyway, I thought it might be an opportune time to not only wish him well but to reflect on this business of getting old and maybe offer a bit of unsolicited advice to those yet to experience it.
This is all advice I studiously ignored when I was young, so it’s not mandatory.
First up. May I suggest it’s a good idea to look after your health, right from the get go. Everything else depends on this simple fact. By this I mean both your physical and mental health.
Don’t ingest, inhale or inject stuff that’s not good for you. Junk food, booze, cigarettes, buai and drugs may sound like fun at the time but believe me they will eventually catch up with you with a vengeance.
Obesity induced diabetes and joint problems, shot livers, lung cancer and emphysema all hurt and are a bugger to handle when you get old.
Look after your teeth too. Stay off the sugar. You know what they say, if you don’t eat you don’t crap and if you don’t crap you die. Eating becomes really problematic when all your teeth have rotted away and fallen out. Who wants to spend their dotage living on baby food or mashed kaukau?
Keep your brain ticking over. Read books, stay away from the couch in front of the idiot box. It’s amazing how a fully functioning brain in your old age will ease the burden. A healthy brain in an old body isn’t perfect but it sure beats dementia.
Listen to your elders, especially your parents, when they reminisce and try to tell you about the good old days. One day you are going to sit down and wonder who you are, where you came from, where you are going and why you act the way you do.
Believe me, it’s inevitable if you are half smart. It’s a human need that usually kicks in during the middle years when you are feeling confused or depressed and wondering what it’s all about. It usually occurs about the same time that you realise that you are not indestructible after all.
If your parents and grandparents are gone there will be no one to ask and you will kick yourself for not listening to them when they were trying to tell you.
Look after your kids. When you reach your dotage they’ll be a joy. Not only will you see yourself in them but they’ll be really handy for all the odd jobs about the place that you can’t manage anymore.
In our modern commercial world we have allowed ourselves to be broken down into consumers living in isolated nuclear families. The warmth of the communal hearth has largely gone. When your kids leave home to make their own way in life you could be left alone if you are not careful.
The same goes for friends. Keep in touch, don’t let them drift away. Make sure that when you need them they are there, as you should be for them.
There’s a lot more but I’m afraid it’s time for my nap.
I’m sure there will be elderly readers who can add a lot more to my list however.