Book Excerpt

I found this excerpt in the AARP Bulletin that we receive. It's from a book, "Never Say Die" by Susan Jacoby. See what you think and I'll tell you my opinion after you read it.

"Here's what one cannot do and be considered a person who is aging successfully; complain about health problems to anyone younger; weep openly for a friend or lover who has been dead more than a month or two; admit to depression or loneliness; express nostalgia for the past; or voice any fear of future dependency - whether because of poor physical health, poor finances, or the worst scourge of advanced old age, Alzheimer's disease. American society also looks with suspicion on old people who demand to be let alone to deal with aging in their own way: One must look neither too needy for companionship nor too content with solitude to be considered a role model for healthy aging rather than a discontented geezer or crone. It's great to be old - as long as one doe not manifest too many of the typical problems of advanced age."

Well, IMHO, it sounds like she wants old people  to just sit down, shut up,  go away and stay with their own kind.  I don't know if these opinions in the book are Ms. Jacoby's  or if she did research. It would be refreshing if "American society" felt about our elders as they seem to do in Oriental countries and honored them - for their longevity if nothing else.