!oH oH oH
The day before Christmas I had to go to the Walmart pharmacy to get my mom her meds.
As I was waiting behind a very old man who was wearing a cap that said
Marines on it, I noticed all this greenish liquid all over the floor. I
was wearing my superboots so I touched a toe in this and it was still
very wet. The old man was having trouble, and suddenly he revealed this
object the size of a soccer ball. It was wet and slime encrusted, the
same color as the stuff on the floor. Although I have never seen one, I
knew it was his colostomy bag. That meant that he had been standing in
line with that thing dripping, and did nothing about it. One of the
clerks was dabbing at him with a paper towel, while he was going on and
on about how he had changed it right before he came up to the store. I
doubt he had and I decided he was senile. God, how awful. I felt bad
for him, and I wondered when he was at the Chosin Resevoir whether he
ever thought that he would end up like this. No, of course not.
Many people were inconvenienced by this. All the lines had to be shut
down while they eventually got someone there with a mop and
disinfectants. I am very sad about that old man but he should not go
places in that condition. If we had been on a spaceship I would have
put him through the nearest airlock pronto.
Old age is an obscenity. It is just our bodies and brains wearing out.
There is no virtue or wisdom gained just from living a long time. I
live in a town with a very high proportion of retirees. Getting older
myself puts me in the position of a man in a mirrored funhouse. An old,
dim, decayed, empty, forlorn, isolated, cold, rain soaked, exposed
funhouse. This way to the Egress!
I see that humiliation coming, and there isn't any dressing it up to be anything other than it is.
ReplyDeleteThat said...the final decay is the last gift we give everyone around us. I've spent a life time caring for, and not burdening others. But on the final lap, I plan on being pretty out of it, and they will have a choice to care for me or not (Genesis9:22-23). Kudos to the little clerk dabbing the old marine with paper towels; not particularly efficient but it sounds like she was trying.
Ooops. Genesis 9, I read the wrong passages. All I know about that is Ham is considered cursed for that incident, one of the justifications for slavery. I feel that Noah was to blame, and that he alone was responsible. Many of the incidents related in the Old Book baffle me, David was not a good man and I do not see why he is held in such honor. Pretty handy with a sling, I'll give him that.
DeleteAt this time, Christmas 2017, Dad was beginning to lose it bad. It was an everyday affair watching someone I had always looked up to and feared being reduced to worse than infancy. The man was very tall and in his eighties, I'm guessing. Whoever brought him there was not on the ball. I felt horrible about the whole thing. I could not even visualize the man in his younger days.
ReplyDeleteI just read Genesis 23, and I'm surprised to find the Hittites being so agreeable, they don't have a reputation for considerate behavior.
That clerk was above and beyond, Walmart should have swung into action but that group had no leaders among them, I felt like taking charge myself, barking orders and sending bystanders for equipment and food, those that weren't busy could do push-ups until we got all this straightened out. Then a round dozen for whoever left that poor guy there in that condition. Standing in line at the Walmart pharmacy here in an intro to Decrepitude 101, this town has a high amount of ambulatory old folk, I get called 'young man' on the one hand and 'mister' on the other.
And I don't care what you plan on, I refuse to let you decay into senility. You are too needed and you cannot be selfish and check out like that. Go all at once, you hear? About 40 years from now ought to work out pretty well!