People either think I'm depressed or just too young to appreciate life when I say I don't want to live past my 70's. I don't think I'm either. I think I'm not among the wealthiest of Americans, and therefore, can't afford to live past my 70's.
I'm not naive enough to think that Social Security will take care of me, but I was stupid enough not to have a job with a 401(k) until just a few years ago. Even with that, I simply don't make enough money to contribute to an amount that makes me think I'm going to be able to afford to live past retirement. I most likely will die still working.
And it's not that I want that to be in the next few years. I still want to be there for my daughters' journey into adulthood. I want to know who they are when they grow up, and I look forward to hanging out with them as adults so I don't have to censor myself with them anymore :)
But I really hate the idea of burdening them with the responsibility of caring for me. I don't want them to have to "babysit" me or worry about paying for my care or anything like that.
My point is this: why worry about living a long, healthy life if I'm not wealthy? I truly don't understand the need.
3 comments:
I thought of this post when I was skimming the headlines (though with great self control, I ONLY read the one about the guy who was bitten by a rattlesnake while putting its head in his mouth to impress a girlfriend. I couldn't resist that one), reading something abotu a new anti-aging pill. Who, exactly, is that supposed to benefit? Aha, only the people who A)are wealthy enough to afford such vanity and B)people who are wealthy enough that they don't have to worry about who will provide for them! Hm, I see an alarming trend there....
This post makes me inexpliciply sad for some reason.
And I probably just spelled "inexpliciply" wrong there. Anyways.
I found you through Kori. Thought I'd finally check you out since she writes about you all the time. :)
I totally agree with you here. My main reason for not wanting to live past my 70s is that I don't want to die a horrible, slow death from cancer or Alzheimer's. Nowadays it seems that everyone is getting cancer at some point. And I worked in an Alzheimer's home in college, and that is a terrible disease to suffer from and for family to deal with.
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