In many houses, the aged are sadly isolated and neglected. Like newborns, they need constant attention. Health is a nagging problem. Something seems to happen to them all the time—they fall sick, fall down or imagine themselves to be suffering from all kinds of ailments. Again and again some have to be taken to the doctor or a doctor has to be called in. The money may be theirs or their children’s, in whose house they are staying. The conventional thought of today’s careerists is that one could have saved the money that goes to the doctor regularly to buy a car or a new refrigerator!
Oftener than not, for the younger members of the family, the aged are boring company. Their ideas are obsolete and outdated, and they stubbornly stick to them. Yes, when we come to the condition of the aged, there are no two ways about it: theirs is a sad state of affairs. Exceptions there are, no doubt, but they only prove the rule.
No wonder people do not want to look old. They do not want to be considered junk material. They dye their hair and pretend they are ten years younger than they are.
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It takes more to be civilised than not live in a jungle and hunt for one’s food. Civilisation is a state of mind in which consideration for others plays a key role. If a naked primitive possesses this attribute and a suited modem gentleman does not, then, paradoxically, the former is more civilised than the latter. The former will care for his aged parents, and give them food, shelter, company and love, but the latter, being a self-seeker, will not.
Caring for the aged is not an occupation in great demand. Only two kinds of people do it—the good, and the clever.
The good do it because it comes naturally to them. To them it is not an act of charity but a spontaneous humanitarian response to the crisis in the lives of people who have seen better days.
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The clever people know that there is a neat sum to be made by caring for the aged. Everywhere there are people willing to pay for old age homes albeit reluctantly (the choice being between paying for them and getting them out of the way, and footing all their bills as well as having to continually tolerate their presence). Sometimes the monetarily better-off aged themselves opt out of their own families and seek to spend the remainder of their lives in old-age homes.
These homes may be run by good people, or they may be run by clever people; but, however fine their services, they can never replace the warmth and comfort of a truly caring home.
In all fairness, it must also be added that there are old people who make a nuisance of themselves by repeatedly asserting themselves. They too need to adjust to their changing circumstances.