
Originally Posted by
adelady
The one thing that distinguishes some older people, and the older they are the more it can become true, and that is the accumulating burden of grief and worry from having more and more of the people you know and love dying or becoming frail. Some people sail serenely through such losses and concerns, most don't. More likely, different people have different thresholds for this inevitably increasing fact of life to become a problem - some people die before they reach their threshold.
On the extreme cases, yes.
But for once i agree with raziel. The older people get. On average the more boring they become. Not sure if it's just the people i spend time with, or if it's with everybody. But i agree, the imagination may be like "been there done that". There can be physical limitations. Psychological limitations. No more kiddisch/foolish experiments. But still, it seems like older people forgot how to have fun..
Yes, older people can still have fun, but not as quickly. Fast jokes go right past them, and being hearing impared or sight impared doesn't really help on being the observer.
My parents are the prime source of this way of thinking. My mother only does housework, and some hobbies she started when she was about 35 years (aerobics). My father is handicapt, and can't ride his motorcycle anymore, had to sell his boat, and is to sight impared or feeling impared (no sense of touch in hands) to do anything usefull with modern technology. This way he has no more hobbies.
I tried proposing hobbies, like chess, singing, or whatever, but fell on deaf ears. Being boring is what the observer sees. What the person actually needs is to get the heck up and do something with their life. While they still can. 3 years ago, my father had trouble walking. So he gave up everything.. His skills are still plummeting rapidly, he now walks like a 190 year old..
Anyone knows a hobby for a 56 year old guy. Who can't walk, but can move his legs slightly, can move his toes/feet, hands, but can't feel anything in them. Has trouble remembering and was operated for glaucoma in both eyes, now eye pressure of 6, vision of about 30%. Not just that, but is an extreme pessimist, thinks everything everybody does is lame and useless, and who doesn't see the fun in living anymore. Because i can't think of anything, i just want to cheer him up

....