Aging
I see my in-laws, who are very nice people, but their life is so depressing. They moved to assisted living and everything is done for them.
Is that the American Dream? To retire and not do anything, be waited on, be entertained?
Certainly, in their younger retirement years, they were very involved with the church, and stayed busy. Well, especially my mother-in-law, she stayed busy.
Now, that she is in assisted living, she no longer has to cook. She no longer has to clean house. She has someone to help her with her husband when he needs assistance up and down. His memory isn't as bad, I don't think, as to really require memory care, so I was glad when they moved into assisted living together.
However, MIL has developed this scaitia nerve pain that has really side-lined her. She doesn't feel like doing anything. So she and my FIL don't do anything, it doesn't seem like. They sit and watch a lot of tv. It is awfully dreary and depressing to me.
She doesn't even want to take care of her own check book. She can't even figure out how to do it. It is so hard to imagine being in a place in your life where you don't even want to try and comprehend how to run your own finances.
I know she is in pain, but she tells me she usually has a few good hours every afternoon, so it isn't constant. I just don't get it. I'm saddened by it. I can't imagine just giving up trying to understand things.
FIL, he suffers from dementia, so I don't know how much comprehension he has about his life. He has been retired since his 50s due to a heart attack. As long as I have known him, all I have seen him do is sit around and watch tv, play computer poker, and let his wife wait on him. He is about 86 now. I can't imagine that either, spending 30 + years retired.
Luckily for me, I get to determine how I live my own life. I get to work hard, focus on constant learning, and tryi the things I want to try, like writing or a different job or whatever my passions take me.
I wonder if they are content in their life. Besides MIL's pain, it seems like they are.
I don't know that I ever want to be content. I think I want to always be striving for something. I wonder how I would react to intense pain or health problems. I don't want to find out, so I work very hard to stay healthy and make informed decisions about my health.
There is this line from this Shinedown song that I try to remember.
"What a shame to judge a life that you can't change." I love that.
They are doing what they are comfortable with. I can judge that what they are content with is not for me.; I can't judge that it is right or wrong. I'm sorry that it disconcerts me, but let it just spur me to continue to strive versus become complacent. I realize that at some point, my health is going to deteriorate. I want to go kicking and screaming, not quietly acquiesce to a life of sedentary decline.
Is that the American Dream? To retire and not do anything, be waited on, be entertained?
Certainly, in their younger retirement years, they were very involved with the church, and stayed busy. Well, especially my mother-in-law, she stayed busy.
Now, that she is in assisted living, she no longer has to cook. She no longer has to clean house. She has someone to help her with her husband when he needs assistance up and down. His memory isn't as bad, I don't think, as to really require memory care, so I was glad when they moved into assisted living together.
However, MIL has developed this scaitia nerve pain that has really side-lined her. She doesn't feel like doing anything. So she and my FIL don't do anything, it doesn't seem like. They sit and watch a lot of tv. It is awfully dreary and depressing to me.
She doesn't even want to take care of her own check book. She can't even figure out how to do it. It is so hard to imagine being in a place in your life where you don't even want to try and comprehend how to run your own finances.
I know she is in pain, but she tells me she usually has a few good hours every afternoon, so it isn't constant. I just don't get it. I'm saddened by it. I can't imagine just giving up trying to understand things.
FIL, he suffers from dementia, so I don't know how much comprehension he has about his life. He has been retired since his 50s due to a heart attack. As long as I have known him, all I have seen him do is sit around and watch tv, play computer poker, and let his wife wait on him. He is about 86 now. I can't imagine that either, spending 30 + years retired.
Luckily for me, I get to determine how I live my own life. I get to work hard, focus on constant learning, and tryi the things I want to try, like writing or a different job or whatever my passions take me.
I wonder if they are content in their life. Besides MIL's pain, it seems like they are.
I don't know that I ever want to be content. I think I want to always be striving for something. I wonder how I would react to intense pain or health problems. I don't want to find out, so I work very hard to stay healthy and make informed decisions about my health.
There is this line from this Shinedown song that I try to remember.
"What a shame to judge a life that you can't change." I love that.
They are doing what they are comfortable with. I can judge that what they are content with is not for me.; I can't judge that it is right or wrong. I'm sorry that it disconcerts me, but let it just spur me to continue to strive versus become complacent. I realize that at some point, my health is going to deteriorate. I want to go kicking and screaming, not quietly acquiesce to a life of sedentary decline.