Old Timers Get More from Life : Monday, February 6, 2006
I'm impressed by my middle-aged friends'
accomplishments lately. Perhaps life really does begin all over
at 50. One friend, retired last fall, has just published a book
on selling knowledge and research skills as an entrepreneur. He
has also just begun an MA in philosophy. Another friend has just
about rebuilt a "rustic" home in Owen Sound from the ground up with his
own two hands and not too much money. At the same time, he has
been tutoring math and ESL students, learning to play the bagpipe,
excavating a historical shipwreck, building a family geneology of the
highest scholarly quality, and helping build homes for Habitat for
Humanity. His spouse has become a knowledge entrepreneur in her
own right. Another couple are planning to retire in India and help
educate young girls who are unwittingly being handed over by their
parents to people who say they are hiring them to sell trinkets, but
who in fact are involving them in the sex trade. They just can't
picture a passive retirement. Wage slavery just doesn't measure
up, but it may provide the means to an end.
What's really been bothering me lately is men who use anger to control others in their environment, from relative strangers from whom they want something to the poor women in their lives who have to wear their bruises and exhaustion to school and work the next day. In regard to the latter, it saddens me to see they feel they have no safe option but to put up with the abuse. If they complain, they fear they will be killed because the courts and police can't do anything quick enough nor permanently enough to begin to ensure their safety. Angry men, as I define them, declare total war on anyone who stands in their way, holds different religious or political views (or is even suspected of same), has a different sexual preference, or wittingly or unwittingly doesn't offer them the unadulterated praise they think is their right. There is no dialogue offered nor accepted, just the full-out assault. Sort of reminds one of certain political strategies. "Anger spreads; more lives are lost" is the lead on the National News even as I write this. Ironically, all the major religions try to teach tolerance, but the "angry man" seems to be their public face in the news. Time for me to get to bed so I can shovel the snow out of the driveway in the morning, before dawn, and make my middle-aged way to work.
What's really been bothering me lately is men who use anger to control others in their environment, from relative strangers from whom they want something to the poor women in their lives who have to wear their bruises and exhaustion to school and work the next day. In regard to the latter, it saddens me to see they feel they have no safe option but to put up with the abuse. If they complain, they fear they will be killed because the courts and police can't do anything quick enough nor permanently enough to begin to ensure their safety. Angry men, as I define them, declare total war on anyone who stands in their way, holds different religious or political views (or is even suspected of same), has a different sexual preference, or wittingly or unwittingly doesn't offer them the unadulterated praise they think is their right. There is no dialogue offered nor accepted, just the full-out assault. Sort of reminds one of certain political strategies. "Anger spreads; more lives are lost" is the lead on the National News even as I write this. Ironically, all the major religions try to teach tolerance, but the "angry man" seems to be their public face in the news. Time for me to get to bed so I can shovel the snow out of the driveway in the morning, before dawn, and make my middle-aged way to work.
