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Dyingman 104: Making Room

dyingman posted on Sep 12, 2009 | views: 49 | Tags: dying, fresh blood, Immortality, power, meritocracy
The withdrawal of my work colleague months ago left me in a position of seniority that has left my life far busier than before.  I have rearranged duties and expectations to the point where my life has become sane again, if haggard.

I have taken on some unofficial duties as well.  Mentor.  Guide.  Go-to guy.  When the guy you went to before is gone, it looks like I'm the guy they find next.  It feels pretty good.

It makes me think about where I was before though.  I was just as competent, had nearly the same knowledge.  Yet I was underutilized.  How many people get overlooked this way.  We often say "Youth is wasted on the young." but couldn't that be partly because we do a poor job of telling them how good they are, how great they can be and how much they can do?

Why would we when they may outshine us?  Out-earn us?  Out perform us?  Render us obsolete.  Far better, we apparently feel, to allow young peopel to marvel at the mystery that is the wisdom of age.  How much better to keep them in a condition of doubt and inexperience lest we be overlooked for responsibilities that bring compensation and prestige. 

Perhaps we throw in the "paying your dues" argument.  Doing the grunt work makes for good character as humility is becoming for everyone.

Imagine the curse of immortality modern medicine threatens to unleash on us.  The same petty insecurities allowing the seniors among us to continue in perpetuity their craft of sewing self-doubt and occasional mental judo to throw the youngsters of the track of achieving greater goals than we could hope to, bogged down with the weight of our habits and obsolete ideas that we cling to because they work, if not perfectly.

Death, sickness, and fatigue take all our betters down from their pedestals so those destine to be better than they might be permitted to wash the society of their detritus.  It will be my turn some day and I hope I'll have been wiser than most by admitting my limitations in such a way that those younger and less experienced will see it the fearlessness in my actions rather than weakness or naivete. 


*DM



Next:  That spot on your back you just can't reach.



THE CHART:

Week of 9/13/09
Activity                                Daily Output
Cycles                                    40
Bench Presses                        11
Curls                                      0
Lifts                                       3
Flights of Stairs                        7
Minutes Walking                        0
Seconds on Heavy bag               0    
Minutes Dancing Per Day             0
Push Ups                                 8
Sit-Ups                                   4


Grade:  B-


Workout Partner's Progress:   Injured.    Grade: N/A



Blood Pressure:    107/74  (9/9/09)  BMI = 25  



RECENT SYMPTOMS : Gum pocket. Hypertension?  Weak left shoulder.  Weak left knee.
ONGOING SYMPTOMS: Weak, clicking knees, Pain in right knee when kneeling and shifting knee to the right. Hyperhidrosis.
DIAGNOSES: Damaged rotator cuff, Foot trauma from minor accident, suspected neuroma or hairline fracture to foot. Unknown injury to right knee, possible impact from small stumble (c. 2006) onto landing of concrete stairs. Injured knee joints from sprinting (c. 2007)

ONGOING TREATMENTS: Alternating dental & periodontal visits every four months, exercise program including high tension stationary cycling for leg muscle development and joint stabilization

DRUG REGIMENS: Aspartame. (3 diet sodas daily) Caffeine (four cups of coffee daily, 2 colas of the 3 sodas)
PROGNOSIS: Gradual decay of knee function.
POTENTIAL TREATMENTS: Fish Oil supplements. Axillary vacuum curettage, laser eye surgery, gum flap tissue surgery / bone graft, filling.

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Comments

  • secretlife said on Sep 13, 2009....
    not everyone who is old is wise.
    but i think we as a whole society don't respect the older folks as much as we should-
    we don't respect their knowlege and experience, and both count for alot-
     
    a person just starting out might have good ideas, but they don't have experience.
    it just doesn't come DM without "paying your dues" so to speak-
     
    of course nowadays, at least in corporate america, if you're 50 and at the top of your pay scale, you better believe the bean counters know about you and have you slotted for replacement.
    at least that's what i see from my vantage point......
     
    used to be when you went to work for a big corporation, they valued the loyal lifelong employees.  they even gave you a gold watch when you retired, and a big party.
    now? 
    who makes it that long?  and if you're lucky enough to, believe me there's no party and no gold watch....in fact, my friends and i try our hardest to look 10 years younger, and never ever mention how many years of service we have....
     
  • dyingman said on Sep 15, 2009....
    Hi, Secret.
    Good to read you, as always.

    Many of the young, fresh ideas get ignored by stubborn, unwise old men.
    Still older men value they less old men very little.  Fresh blood and they alone can keep the castle standing, they think.

    I lived through the 80's.  Ronald Reagan stepping on the air traffic controllers' union, signaling that "the man" was now in charge and would stay that way for at least the next 28 years.  The failure to acknowledge value of humans was the natural, logical conclusion.

    Barbaric treatment of humanity by those lucky (yes, lucky) enough to temporarily amass power is the outcome of capitalism that Karl Marx envisioned.  The only failure of his vision was the softening power of a democracy.  Our own rise of the proletariat and overthrow of the czars happens not in a bloodbath but in a sizable congressional majority of a party professing itself to be the voice of the common man.  This reputation over the past 16 years has become something of a facade with only a small core of principle remaining.  It is that core that can expect to grow.  Probably never enough to bring on widespread, long term contentment.  Only enough to relieve the misery that unbridled capitalism, unconsciously attempts to levy upon their miserable heads.

    I'm no sap.  This job at the observatory is the last I'll ever have working for someone else.  No one else will hire me.  My next job will be my own business and I'm going to eat the lunch of every jerk I cross paths with.  My prices will be lower, my wages will be higher, and my customers will be the happiest.  Oh, my how they will hate me.

    Perhaps the youngsters who will follow will take my lead.  If they don't it won't be because I haven't set a good example.


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My feelings as of right now.

Warped_perception posted on Nov 02, 2009 | views: 19 | Tags: dying, sue e Cyde, attentionwhore, Writting
I feel pretty! oh, so pretty...Yeah fucking right.... read entire post 0 comments