Is it part of getting older (old? Golden Ager?) that I am increasingly impatient with so many things? Bad – i.e. nonexistent – customer service. Unexplained, endless delays in receiving what has been promised, bought, and paid for. Packaging that is not only child proof but impervious even to sharp scissors. “New and improved” whatever that is perhaps new, but is the exact opposite of improved. Artificially created obsolescence forcing purchase of new equipment when the perfectly good items can’t be updated any longer because the tech company wants yet more excessive profit. I could go on, but it is undoubtedly a waste of time to do so.
And that most likely is the underlying reason for my impatience – a sense of time running out, that I don’t want wasted on stupidly aggravating nonsense.
My group of friends who get together weekly for what we call Stitching (to encompass sewing, knitting, crochet and whatever else anyone chooses, including idle hands) are all “mature” women. We all express frustration with time wasters though none of us have, so far, identified what I am considering now, that the very fact of being older and aware that the time remaining in our lives is far less than that already spent, causes much of the impatience. If I have only a limited amount of time left in life I don’t want to waste it on trash.
Perhaps I have also identified the source of the stereotype of old people as grumpy?
Yes, it’s true none of us knows, at any age, how long we have yet to live. But short of a terminal diagnosis, or existence in a war zone that makes one’s end of life salient, not many of us abandon the unconscious conviction of near immortality that is the framework of daily life. Reaching retirement, at whatever age above midlife that turning point occurs, tends to trigger an assessment of achievements and a setting of new goals, but does not automatically shift us (or at least it did not do so for me) into a more conscious sense of time as a precious commodity not to be squandered. It was not until, just recently, I noticed the extent to which I had become impatient that, seeking reasons, I came to understand this as a common quality of older folks arising from an underlying awareness that one’s days (hours, minutes?) are indeed numbered.
I think a somewhat similar shift in perspective occurs in what has been termed midlife crisis, the not uncommon mental turmoil that accompanies the first indications of flagging energy and rising uncertainty as to where one is on life’s path. Changing careers, altering goals, returning to school, finding new interests to fill an “emptied nest” are activities frequently accompanied by an awareness of time’s passage, bringing also an increased sense of vulnerability.
What differentiates this midlife reassessment from the late-in-life one seems to me to be a changed sense of time. In midlife, we focus on how much we still want to achieve in the (perceived as still long) amount of time we believe is left to us. By later age, we instead are aware that we have outlived many of our peers. The unknown amount of time left to us becomes precious, not to be squandered. People, circumstances, attitudes that waste time become highly expendable, and highly aggravating when they cannot be circumvented.
In order not to throw away my remaining time being angry or feeling helpless, I have sought a viewpoint to free me from this constraint, and found it in the concept of eliminating my remaining karmic debt, thus becoming able to exit this life (however soon that exit occurs) without ties that force me to return for another incarnation. One need not accept the concept of reincarnation to benefit from this form of detachment. The act of unhooking from frustration, putting down the impenetrable package, temporarily setting aside the uncooperative software – the fact of distancing oneself in order to come back to the task in a calmer state seems to allow it to flow more smoothly.
Perhaps I am merely recognizing an application of the refrain “to every thing there is a season, and a time for every purpose under heaven?”
If so, is it time – finally – for me to be able to get the icing out of its impervious package so I can finish the cake I want to take to Stitching?
1eclecticwriter 
History – Repeat, Repeat
November 18, 2025Responding to a comment from a 48 year old person that “my generation is at fault” for a failure to bring African countries further ahead in their economic development, I found myself responding that too few people, worldwide, seem to have integrity and an ethic of community well-being. Instead the dominant motivator seems to be “I will get mine by whatever means necessary” and to hell with my neighbors, let alone those living in other countries.
Yes there are exceptions everywhere, but they are sadly few and far between.
Why has it taken us here in the USA so long to begin to push back against the epitome of greed, corruption and narcissism that is the cabal currently running our government? Yes, the latest demonstrations and elections show there is a new sense of unity (except perhaps in the Senate) intent on reversing the degradation of our democracy.
Why has it taken so long, and conditions devolved so badly, for that push back to be necessary? Why are dictatorial leaders taking control in more and more countries, while long time ones continue to blatantly steal elections to retain their power?
What is it in human nature that so easily cedes independence of thought to enable a dictator, or cult leader, or other “strongman” to take control without any limits on their ability to then ignore the interests of their followers? Have we learned nothing, over time, from those individuals who wrest their freedom from cult leaders, or overturn a repressive government?
Whom can we hold responsible for our collective willingness to forget history, and therefore be condemned to repeat it, over and over, country after country, worldwide?
I honor the voices, like heather Cox Richardson’s, that daily remind us of how the present debacle in the U.S. mimics earlier periods in our history (the ugly history that MAGA is attempting to erase in order to reinstall its updated ugly version). Paul Krugman does something similar in the economics domain, as does Joyce Vance with the history of law. There are others in different specialties, as well as voices (like Aaron Parnass) that provide factual, truthful updates, often several times daily, of both the brutal and the positive actions occurring which affect us all.
My question is why has it come to this, yet again? What is it in our human makeup that forces a seemingly perpetual swing from compassion, cooperation, and democratic progress back to greed, selfishness, corruption and authoritarian or fascist rule?
One simplistic answer I have read is that the downfall began when we banned religious worship from our public schools. The big problem with that response is that the religion the answer-providers refer to is strictly and only Christianity. They do not espouse respecting and including Judaism, Islam Hinduism, Buddhism, Shintoism, or any of the literally hundreds of other religions, nor the non-sectarian pursuit of pure Spirit, all of which are present both here in the U.S. and all around the world. Indeed, now, classes that might reintroduce a religion-based ethics into classrooms are themselves being banned as “woke”, meaning they deviate from a Christian nationalist world view.
And, by the way, Christian nationalism deviates sharply from Christian values, as firmly pointed out in, among other voices, the recent statement by Catholic bishops regarding Jesus’ teaching on welcoming immigrants. Elsewhere it has been commented that all religions and ethical systems seem to incorporate a version of the Golden Rule. Why is it so hard for so much of humanity to “Do unto others as you would have the do unto you” when the precept is so easily understood?
So many questions, so few answers.
Tags:Aaron Parnas, Christianity, ethics, faith, Heather Cox Richardson, hostory lessons, humanity's values, Paul Krugman, political chaos, politics, religion
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