Take Back Your World

Old means you cannot do things for yourself and clean house. No, that is what teenagers do. So how do we put this to rest? The ‘Cloud Community’, see; it’s not the internet anymore and it’s not e-mail but messaging, and it may even not be texting, keyboarding, ‘God-Knows-What’, because I have it on good authority voice programs are taking that away. Seniors have the ability to stay connected through Facebook. Supportive Groups can lend real time assistance and help. There should be a Monitor to keep members informed and up-to-date on issues and concerns. There can be a commonality in that WE can Police ourselves just fine, Thank you and why not?

A guy came to the door a week after my Propane Gas Bottle was stolen out of my shed. He had a clipboard and said he was an Insurance Inspector. He wanted to take pictures of my house. I told him I couldn’t see anyway and there was no way I could verify anything of what he was telling me. What I did was I got my camera out and took his picture and a picture of his Truck and license plate and said. “I’m not letting you in my house and there is nothing I can tell you.” Needless to say, he got out of there quick. I gave the Policeman the business card and the pictures. Happy enough I don’t see very well. Idiot! What we need is protection from idiots. There wasn’t anything he wanted he couldn’t get from his armchair in Fresno, California off of Google Earth! National Insurance, indeed! Oh, they may be real. Just idiots. Fresno’s like 1500 miles away! He won’t make it out of the State without getting stopped by every cop between here and Fresno. In fact, he didn’t even make it out of town. The Detective held him for hours as his Company didn’t vouch for him. At any time I can ask my friends what to do. They can decide to call the Police for me. They can call me and they can see to it I don’t forget to tell my wife. The computer world keeps me out of trouble and if it costs money it won’t let me do it anyway. So, I’m perfectly safe from Alpha Betty and Candy Crush.

We are able to spend time learning from each other ways and means to tackle the really hard stuff like “What’s for dinner?” and maybe even where the best place to get it is. In an instant I have contact with Professionals of every discipline. Movie Makers, Book Writers, Doctors, Nurses, Social Workers, Government Officials who do things the right way, Ministers and Advocates. All I have to do is mention a problem and there they are! A wonderful and available community of retired folks who are driven towards getting me the help I need right now, not later, and usually within a minute.

I am finding a better connection than a cell phone, telephone or letter, because ‘The Cloud’ doesn’t lose my stuff. I can keep checking back and if I forget it’s not only “no biggie” Nobody, absolutely nobody even notices! If I stutter, nobody notices. In the event that I slur my words, wrong or backwards, nobody will know! My pages get checked and read back to me before they go out. I can fix them. It might take me a while but my dignity is preserved. I’m thinking we can build it better. It might be time to encourage a new society of retired persons. Humanities being more a study of life than a vocation. Empowered by the experiences of the professionals who comprise the ranks of the retired. We can become our own support system. Why not? Everybody else wants money!

They tried to call it “volunteerism”. Seniors Centers were supposed to foster a Guild-like resource for the community. Farmers used to hang out at the Grange Hall and advise young farmers how and when to work the land. Now, What do we got?

Opportunity to realize a fuller potential. There will be a few of us who still refuse to become Astro- Physicists. My own contribution towards fission and fusion was to see to it 40 years worth of nukes got dismantled and transported deep underground somewhere the sun don’t shine.

Creating order out of chaos is what I enjoy now. My medium is yarn and making scrappy quilts. Even a bit of haberdashery on the side. I figure that if Hudson’s Bay can make it big with blankets, I stand a pretty good chane at immortality with yarn.

This isn’t your grandfather’s retirement. Together we can form meaningful and powerful alliances. Change the course of our lives. Redefine our existence. Make our children proud. A force to make the world a better place now. In the 1980’s New York’s elderly took back their streets. We can take back our world.

   Sincerely Cecil

tags: PCA, online community & resources, tech, aging

Cecil’s index page for other entries is at https://truthfulkindness.com/index-persons-with-dementia-pwd/cecil-ristow/ .

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