Memoirs of a Geezer
Reflections and Observations -- A Bright Passage from the Fantasies of Youth to Illuminations of Advanced Maturity!
This Episode: "The Nomination is the Award!..."
(subtitle)
The Curse of Ageism, and What Geezers Face
when Discarded, Ignored and Diminished by Society!
Can't readily recall where I originally heard the expression, the one used as the main title of this posting. It seems apt, however, for those who did not have the great honor of rising, somewhat stunned, walking up to the awards presentation stage to be handed the top prize... but who, nonetheless, were so honored by their peers, one of a just a chosen few... not blessed with ultimate victory, perhaps, but at least... nominated, even though steeped in GeezerHood, considered to be out of date, obsolete!
It's somewhat like a serendipitous find while walking in the park, for example, when a large denomination note of currency suddenly and completely unexpectedly appears at your feet. You stop and pick it up, discovering that it's real. You stuff it in your pocket, and there it seems to grow, even glow, as if emanating stars and sparkles and bright colors, and you begin to levitate, in a way; you lose yourself in pleasing thoughts of using that find to perfect advantage....
But I digress a bit. I seem to do that frequently... The Book... When SweetHeart and I
discovered a large crack in our "Nest Egg," we knew we had to find new means of generating income. At a certain advanced age, one finds oneself, sadly, a victim of Ageism and irrelevance. It matters little how brilliantly you may have performed in your professional life, how many awards and accolades you received along the way.
When we reach a certain age, we become mere labels... "Seniors," "Elderly," past our prime. The perception among the young -- to those of us no longer in the bloom of youth -- is like a scar or a poison pen letter or a false accusation or a striped prison tunic with a large number sewn onto its chest position... A stigma, like a contagious disease, like a toxin.
In spite of brilliant Curricula Vitae (CVs), endless job searches, want ads, internet career sites and too much more, all pursued exhaustedly, we, the "Geezer Set," are rejected, abandoned, ignored and forgotten, like so much detritus cast onto curb sides and rubbish heaps... So what then?
But then... like a kind of curative drug, a precious discovery, the great and glorious career has its joyful moments, a kind of re-awakening, and thus we decide to write a book, chronicling our experiences and adventures, the fun and the funny, the enriching and educative moments, the voyage into uncharted seas. We begin collecting tales, writing down the memories, the rewards and the pains, after five or six years of picking up and delivering food to those who harvest their sustenance from smart phones and the "Applications" loaded into their complex circuitry. We have something to say, something rare, something relevant and important!
The results, both unexpected and gratifying, can make the joys and the miseries seem almost worthwhile, worth the time and the travel, the mileage, the aging, unbent limbs locked into position in what seems a perpetual motion contrivance, and the costs of fuel and the setbacks and the wasted time and motion that so often come with the territory.
Again, the unexpected! We're invited to conduct a class via a university's continuing education program for older adults. We've been invited to discuss the book before a large and erudite group, a book club, one populated by intelligent and well-read members. Both events would center on our book, and the gig economy generally. The former may be cancelled due to low registrations, but it's the nomination that counts, that lingers in memory like a sunlit day at the beach with crusty bread, ripe fruit, cool drinks and sugary treats.
But then my thoughts return to the potential audience, and whether anyone who lives in
well-to-do neighborhoods has ever had an occasion to be mired of necessity in the gig economy. There are exceptions, of course. And, it's summer... People tend to remove themselves from tedium, travel on holidays to pleasant, sunny and summery environs, and try to recall what it was like to be young and carefree. Many are buoyed by strong spirits and mugs of cold beer, but like the holiday itself, a kind of phantom, ephemeral, gone like the fading of a dream.
But inside our heads, in our minds' eyes and memory, the things that cannot be removed or erased (save the devastation of dementia, of course), we can savor. What used to be or perhaps what might have been, and we can lose ourselves in the joy of knowing we were awarded the nomination. And we'll always have those triumphs, successes, our trophies and our victories. Those thoughts, those ideas, are locked inside our psychic vaults forever... or until we're dead!
(Special Note: Making a U-Turn in the Gig Economy is available through Amazon.com, as a Kindle, a Hard Cover version and as a Paperback. One can also purchase the book at a somewhat modest cost directly from the author... joelkrio@gmail.com... Thank You!)
[ 2. The perpetrator dedicates this posting to SweetHeart for her precious and indispensable partnership, support, superb ideas, her editing skills. In addition, we dedicate this writing to Lucy, without whose gorgeous illustrations, the book would not be the literary and aesthetic jewel that it is! Readers are welcome to judge for themselves, of course! "Jewel" may be considered by some to be somewhat hyperbolic! (But probably not!) ]
