(no subject)

[luckytroll]

In a moment of clarity this morning, brought about by various events, I realized that the true horror of getting old is not really about actually aging - because lets face it - all your friends are doing it too, and its normal. The horrid thing is that as a compassionate person, you have to watch everyone else get sick and die. Of course, ones own mortality is a concern - but its only something to worry about. Nobody complains about being dead once they actually are. But being helpless to change the fact of everyone elses suffering and death - and at the end feeling left behind by it all.  Even if mankind manages to live to an average age of 1000 - this will be a truth of life.

Perhaps this kind of thing only happens to the compassionate. Perhaps the evil folks get to spend the balance of their days feeling pleased about their conquest of the world, or the amassment of the largest nuclear weapon  collection, or the eventual anihilation of their foes, or the cornering of the worlds oil markets.  Somehow I get the sense that even evil people are multidimensional, and that they too suffer loss.

On a positive note - my cat is perfectly willing to snarf up his pill and antibiotics if I mix it with some soft food. The fact that soft food is a complete bonus for him for the last 4 years has a lot to do with it.

Still no word from Kingston though - this may be a month I dread my BlackBerry for more than the usual reasons.

Comments

[kiwano.livejournal.com]

Perhaps this kind of thing only happens to the compassionate. Perhaps the evil folks get to spend the balance of their days feeling pleased about their conquest of the world, or the amassment of the largest nuclear weapon collection, or the eventual anihilation of their foes, or the cornering of the worlds oil markets. Somehow I get the sense that even evil people are multidimensional, and that they too suffer loss.


Well for one, evil people have to worry about whether or not they'll outlive their enemies, and which potential successor can be trusted to ensure the continuation of their legacy (the answer is always "none of them", which makes for quite a bit of anxiety, and tends to lead to the default appointment of one's family or immediate underling). There's also the concern about not letting one's successor know of the succession, just in case they decide that they're not so interested in waiting.

Needless to say, compassion is not a prerequisite for stressful aging.