I’ve seen it happen to older friends. It’s the dreaded moment when they realize the time has come to hang up the car keys and give up the privilege of driving. Yet another painful truth on the aging path of life has to be absorbed.
Not so bad if you have ready access to public transportation. You’ve already cultivated the patience and foresight needed to work with the scheduling of others. |
Moving on to the future
What if you’re NOT within reach of public transport? This is when crucial decisions may have to be made. But again, there are choices. And whereas a younger person might rant and start a go fund me to get some help, you’ll busy yourself with figuring out your best way to solve the problem.
- Vehicles are expensive little beasts to keep on the road. If you don’t have one you may be able to use a taxi cab for the times you need to go out.
- You may be able to arrange a regular ride schedule with a neighbor or friend. That way you have to keep organized, and that’s a good thing for you and your brain.
- Reach out to your local community services organization. Their mandate is to help you when you have challenges that are hard to solve.
- Finally, you can choose other accommodation. This takes some thinking before doing. It’s always good to add other folks into how you think through the benefits and drawbacks from such a drastic step.
It’s possible everyone will be using driverless rented cars in the not- so- far- off future, but until then, you’re stuck, baby.
Elders of the present senior generation are unbelievably lucky. You can choose the size of the world you operate in. If you haven’t yet learned to use a computer/ tablet or smartphone, now’s the time to start!
Seriously, you don’t want to be a holdout from the dark ages of non-tech knowledge. It’s just not cool. You’re isolating yourself from many wonderful experiences of meeting great online friends. A major free learning resource for you will be your local library. So, instead of coming up with your standard saying, “I like to feel the pages of a real book” open your mind to the idea of learning to download one onto your new tablet. Knowledge is power.
You don't want to be illiterate, when you can travel anywhere in the world on the internet! So when you lose your driver's license it becomes a golden opportunity to think about keeping or making a place for yourself in the big world.
Memories are made of this
You used to do this with Jane, and that with Mavis. Remember how much fun it was when you all had those rotating dinners? No one to rotate with now.
Remember how your body used to do just what you wanted it to? How it was lithe and active? Now you use a walker. Even pickleball activities are over. You just can’t balance reliably, let alone steady yourself AND hit some small object!
All is not lost. Those of you who are older, facing daily dread when you forget a name, a circumstance, and what happened yesterday, or four hours ago, need to shake yourselves up by using your long term memory instead to pep up your value and gained wisdom to society. You might no longer be a driver, but life has made you a historian.
Sometimes it’s easier to explain with videos or pictures. That’s another thing about modern stuff that’s fun to embrace.
Our music is still more than worthwhile, with its storytelling and rhythm.
There’s something you can always count on, unless our devil-may-care leaders finally decide to use their beloved war technology to annihilate us all. It’s the fact that people are all around. They are the key to making your world big and beautiful again.
You can join them, talk to them, laugh with them, care about them. There are groups of folks everywhere you look. Some you’ll enjoy, others not so much. Your choice.
When bad things happen, it’s hard to keep in mind that others are suffering too.
Caring with a smile
Then slowly I started to observe people I saw each day. I was looking for folks who might need a bit of a bonus in their lives. Anyone I saw who seemed to need a ‘lift’, was fair game to receive a ticket!
My favorite explanation to the the recipients is “I’m looking for someone who might need an extra smile today…” and then I give them the ticket.
No one has refused! Instead, a look of delight crosses their face, and very often they give me a hug. It’s amazing what one dollar, given kindly and freely, can do for happiness.
Thing is, it isn’t just one dollar. As it changes hands it magically transforms into a fun gift of hope, without you having any expectation of receiving something in return.
So now, I’m never without a stash of lottery tickets in my handbag! It’s a daily chance to keep my world big and joyful, and help someone else on the road to doing the same.
May your week be blessed.