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Every once in a while, we adjust our point of view. That’s OK isn’t it? We’re getting old. Things change for us. Things are getting tough. Of course we’re going to look at life from a different point of view. Everyone knows that.
    So why am I bothering to write about it? Well, the last time (very recently) I stopped to adjust my point of view, I got quite a surprise. At age 74, I turned the thing back 50-odd years.
Someone said, as I recall it was FDR, “The only thing we have to fear is fear itself.” At the time, it seemed to me that was a strange thing to say. I don’t remember if FDR was talking about the Great Depression or WWII. Or maybe it was tuberculosis or polio or cancer. FDR was crippled by polio. At any rate, it seemed to me that all of those things should be feared. What I knew of those things worried me.
As time moved along, I acquired new things to fear, as did the rest of us. For instance, my wife, Phyllis, had a seriously difficult time giving birth to our first child. Later, while in the army, I received orders to report to Korea – not a healthy place for infantrymen at that time. Later still, with a wife and four children, we had to move and find a new job. In recent years, two of our grandchildren have spent several assignments in Iraq – not a healthy place for U.S. Marines at this time.
While we live with the fear that accompanies such situations, they often work themselves out. Both mother and son survived the difficult birth. An armistice ended the Korean War (police action?), and I didn’t go. I found another job. Our U.S. Marine grandchildren are healthy.
So, what has all this to do with adjusting my point of view 50-odd years? Well, with a lifetime of hindsight, I’ve decided that FDR, or whoever it was that said those words of wisdom, was right. Fear is the worst thing to fear, because fear doesn’t do a thing to improve the things we feared. We did something about what we feared.
That is important. Our parents (and some of us) worked their way out of the Great Depression. We can never repay the men and women who won WWII for us. Teams of very bright people won over polio and tuberculosis, and others seem to be gaining on cancer. Phyllis’s doctor got help from a specialist. Many people arranged the Korean armistice. The U.S. Marine Corps is doing a commendable job fighting – and protecting our grandchildren. Fear, in all cases, didn’t improve a thing.
So there! We senior citizens have a lot of tough problems. Fear, my new point of view tells me, might be our toughest problem. But, but, but, we have a lifetime of hindsight to help us. The key to a better senior citizenship, it seems to me, is to do whatever is needed to fight fear, not nothing.
Hang in there! Eat right. Exercise. Ask questions. Do something to help yourself. Help someone else.
Say, I ought to be a preacher. Well, maybe not.
For information on issues related to aging, contact the Aroostook Agency on Aging at 764-3396 or 1-800-439-1789, e-mail Info@aroostookaging.org or visit www.aroostookaging.org.