The Woodward family is to receive $150,000 in exchange for dropping their civil suit against Brattleboro, paid for from the town's insurance policy. They will use the money to start a foundation to benefit the elderly and disabled.
Though I'm not that old, I have to say that for the last time in my life, I am becoming the person I have somewhat wanted to be. As I've aged, I've become less kind to myself. I am sometimes sentimental, sometimes senile, but some of life is just as well never forgotten even though I eventually forget the important things. I am cursed to have lived long enough to have less hair left to turn gray than ever before and to have my youthful laughs forever etched into deep grooves on my neck. So many have never laughed. So many have died, and I'm still around to note the passing of each one. As I get older, it's harder to be positive. Unlike young people, I stop caring about what other people think, and I constantly question myself. I've never earned the right to be wrong so I dislike growing old and that is setting me free.
Younger people wonder why older people are still driving and having a good time as if they're the only ones entitled to crash the car into a Starbuck's. Yes, it's true you mostly hear on the news only negative stories about older drivers. Maybe the media portrays older people as dumb and stupid, but they portray liberals the same way so at least they're in good company. The commercials on TV with older people always portray them as lost, deaf, and stupid and young people as confident and cool, but at least the elderly don't all dress alike. The media doesn't need to change their attitude toward older people. Why? Because the media is shallow and self-conscious and a whore for advertising. We are not all feeble and stupid, we aren't all hooked on Maalox Plus non-flatulent, non-constipating antacid. We simply don't consume as rabidly as children under 25 years old do. Yes, sometimes we may wander into some potentially dangerous situations, but at least we all don't die typically as a result.
They say that growing old in America can be lonely and isolating. But it depends on the paths you take and better to be on a quiet path that few dare travel than one familiar and filled with bands of teenagers. If you're young, you tend to be too frightened to stand out and be different so you tend to take the beaten path. Today's younger, more affluent parents like boring children that go to Duke or Princeton. But beaten paths are for beaten people.
Let's hope the elderly don't need to be running to the Robert Woodward Center for care and for support. Maybe the elderly have something to teach us, something of value that we can learn? Something that we can depend on them for rather than the always the other way around.