George Carlin's Views on Aging

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Do you realize that the only time in our lives when we like to get old is when we're kids? If you're less than 10 years old, you're so excited about aging that you think in fractions.

"How old are you?" "I'm four and a half!" You're never thirty-six and a half. You're four and a half, going on five! That's the key

You get into your teens, now they can't hold you back. You jump to the next number, or even a few ahead.

"How old are you?" "I'm gonna be 16!" You could be 13, but hey, you're gonna be 16! And then the greatest day of your life .. you become 21. Even the words sound like a ceremony . YOU BECOME 21. YESSSS!!!

But then you turn 30. Oooohh, what happened there? Makes you sound like bad milk! He TURNED; we had to throw him out. There's no fun now, you're Just a sour-dumpling. What's wrong? What's changed?

You BECOME 21, you TURN 30, then you're PUSHING 40. Whoa! Put on the brakes, it's all slipping away. Before you know it, you REACH 50 and your dreams are gone.

But wait!!! You MAKE it to 60. You didn't think you would!

So you BECOME 21, TURN 30, PUSH 40, REACH 50 and MAKE it to 60.

You've built up so much speed that you HIT 70! After that it's a day-by-day thing; you HIT Wednesday!

You get into your 80's and every day is a complete cycle; you HIT lunch; you TURN 4:30; you REACH bedtime. And it doesn't end there. Into the 90s, you start going backwards; "I Was JUST 92."

Then a strange thing happens. If you make it over 100, you become a little kid again. "I'm 100 and a half!"

May you all make it to a healthy 100 and a half!!

HOW TO STAY YOUNG

1. Throw out nonessential numbers. This includes age, weight and height. Let the doctors worry about them. That is why you pay "them."

2. Keep only cheerful friends. The grouches pull you down.

3. Keep learning. Learn more about the computer, crafts, gardening, whatever. Never let the brain idle. "An idle mind is the devil's workshop."

4. Enjoy the simple things.

5. Laugh often, long and loud. Laugh until you gasp for breath.

6. The tears happen. Endure, grieve, and move on. The only person, who is with us our entire life, is ourselves. Be ALIVE while you are alive.

7. Surround yourself with what you love , whether it's family, pets, keepsakes, music, plants, hobbies, whatever. Your home is your refuge.

8. Cherish your health: If it is good, preserve it. If it is unstable, improve it. If it is beyond what you can improve, get help.

9. Don't take guilt trips. Take a trip to the mall, even to the next county; to a foreign country but NOT to where the guilt is.

10. Tell the people you love that you love them , at every opportunity.

AND ALWAYS REMEMBER :

Life is not measured by the number of breaths we take, but by the moments that take our breath away.


And if you don't send this to at least 8 people - who cares? But do share this with someone. We all need to live life to its fullest each day!!

[coluigi]

An old teacher of mine told me a quite depressing perspective on it all but I can't remember who originally said it.

"You live roughly 70 years and there are 7 days of the week - 10 years to a day. What day are you on?"

Wednesday already?

Well very early Wednesday morning

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Its also odd that when you reach 40 years old you realise that life is in ten year cycles. you hope you make it to 50. then you hope you make it to 60. Then you really start need some prayers.

[Zone]

Originally Posted by @@@@

Its also odd that when you reach 40 years old you realise that life is in ten year cycles. you hope you make it to 50. then you hope you make it to 60. Then you really start need some prayers.

How true, I hit 40 this year

[Nimby]

I lost a friend in junior school to polio and then another to a hole in the heart. Both had such infinite potential. They could have invented a cure for cancer or a warp drive to take us to the stars. Or have been Mum and Dad to those who did.

All life is precious. Why do we let so many die unnecessarily? Why do we let so many live without an education? Or a full stomach? So that they had no time to think for and about humanity's infinite future? Every dictator is a Darwin Award Winner by default. Every individual should be allowed the right to maximise their potential from birth. To deny any of them is to lose their potential to change the world for the better. Yet we discard the vast majority.

Potential: The watchword of this new century. Measure our progress by our ability to liberate all of our infinite potentials. Limiting it to the offspring of the rich and powerful is to waste 99.999% of what we might be. Most rich kids have absolutely no potential at all. Life is too easy. There is no imagination. No drive. No desire to know the unknown. They have only to ask.

To deny girls an education is to grovel on your face in the dirt forever. To deny women equal rights is to cut off your right hand at birth. To deny schooling to all is to deny yourself the wealth of unlimited economic growth. To limit the freedom of women to lead is to limit your own intellectual progress and potential wealth.

The blinkered are terribly poor judges and liberators of human potential.
Their every waking thought is about control and limitation of human potential.
Why do we let the blinkered rule most of the earth?

Just think what we might have been by now. A cure for aging or a means to communicate with those who maximized their potential in life. Despite the Hitlers, the Stalins, the Putins, the Mugabes, the Pol Pots, the Mao Tse Tungs and the countless misogynistic Popes.