Too Old

Tonight's post is a reflection on reading I have been doing for class. I mostly have a lot of questions to put out there for people. If anyone would like to respond, please! If not, then feel free to also just toss these questions around in your mind.

In considering the elderly, what comes to your mind?
What comes to your mind about care of the elderly?
What about mental and emotional health?

When I think about working with the elderly I am very driven to try to make them feel more important to society and to help them still have ways to enjoy themselves despite handicaps or disabilities that they may have acquired.

But when I consider working with them, I imagine that I would not want to work with that population primarily, but maybe with teenagers and young adults. One thing that makes me think this is because I want to work with a population that will have a greater effect on the future... (my wish to make the world a better place)

I am sure this is a legitimate point, but is it right to place youth in more importance than the elderly? (I know, I know, what is "right" in any context, but for lack of better words...)
Am I (Are we) too focused on development and future and not focused enough on the immediate?

If I looked at the situation in a completely immediate and basic way of considering the general well being and life experience of all human beings (or should I extend it to creatures?) wouldn't every single person, regardless of age, be just as important as the other?

I mean, sparing devastating accidents or illnesses, we are all going to be elderly one day. Shouldn't we be worried that one day, according to our own values, we will be worth less than we once were?

I know that not everyone has the same opinions about this issue, I am generalizing based on what I have thought and on what I have seemed to have observed in our culture. ("our culture?" I think I am closing off and making assumptions about how may read this)

There are a lot more questions and many answers for each... I am just stating a few that popped into my head immediately.

Feel free to give me some answers, or even more questions. :)

Also, a related, though unrelated quote from a reading:

"Leder (2000) cautions that the 'conventional Western model of successful aging assumes that the losses that attend age should be combated whenever possible' (pg. 37) In contrast, the spiritual model of aging embraces the losses of age and uses them for reflection and liberation."

Pederson, Counseling Across Cultures


Wow, that's a whole other topic... but I am just going to let that statement stand on it's own for now...