Aging is something that people talk a lot about in my line of work. Many people speak about what they can’t do becuase of their age or ‘look at what I can do! And I’m over 50!’ Like over 50 means you can’t do things anymore.
Losing my mother when she was 60 was especially hard for me because I wanted to take care of her when she was ‘old and grey’. Well, I was robbed of that and now I see ‘aging’ very differently than most. I don’t have a connection with numbers, birth year, current year, under 50, over 50, you look good for your age BS; it is all nonsense to me. I say, Live Damn It! Just live! Everything else is just noise.
In case you don’t watch If You’re Not in the Obit Eat Breakfast, here are some of my favorite parts that I felt were important enough to transcribe and share with you.
“I like living in the moment. I think there are two words we don’t understand the importance of, ‘over’ and ‘next’. When something is over, it’s not over, and then comes next. If there was a hammock in the middle, between ‘over’ and ‘next’, that would be what they mean about living in the moment. I think our culture stereotypes everything. Because I am 93 I am supposed to behave in a certain way. The fact that I can touch my toes shouldn’t be so amazing to people. If the culture really understood what it means to be older, the culture wouldn’t make such a big deal about being older and wouldn’t make such a fuss about it. In a way I am the age of whoever I am talking to; I am the peer of whoever I am talking to. If I’m talking to a 50 year-old, I’m 50. If I’m talking to a 12 year-old, I’m 12. There are no cons to being 93, they are all pros; just being alive is a glory. You can’t laugh hard without it adding time, I mean that from the bottom of my heart.”
Norman Lear~ age 95
“I teach yoga because I watch people and they don’t breathe properly and they are suffering. I want to teach them how to breathe properly. When I take a breath I open the door to my heart.”
Tao Porchon-lynch~ age 97
‘Now, I’m 92 you know. Half of my life is gone.”
Fyvush Finkel~age 94
“Being old is like a whole new adventure, you can’t describe it to young people; there’s no way.”
Stan Lee~ age 94
“That’s the only thing I care about, the fact that I can still walk around the block. If I didn’t have that I would be so sad.” Says Carl Reiner to Betty White
“Yes, because you would be a burden to people, and I don’t want to be a burden to people…except possibly Robert Redford.” Betty White says under her breath. 🙂
Betty White~age 95
“I do things today that were too difficult for me to do 40 or 50 years ago, and now it’s a piece of cake. I don’t know why but my fingers go like lightning; I’m unstoppable. People ask me why I don’t have any wrinkles. Every morning I wash my face with ice cold water.”
Irving Fields~age 100
“Tony Bennet asked me to give the commencement speech at the Frank Sinatra School for the Performing Arts. I gave my commencement speech, which was my three principles of life.
#1 Bust your ass—whatever you’re doing bust your ass, work as hard as you possibly can.
#2 Pay attention—pay attention to what’s around you all the time.
#3 Fall in love—love doesn’t mean romantic love, fall in love with your parking space. I think I learned this from George Burns. He would say, ‘this cup of coffee, I think might be the greatest one I’ve ever had.’ It’s kind of an old-school virtue. I don’t know too many young people that have this; I know a lot of older people that have it.”
Jerry Seinfeld
“I think it’s common sense that vitality comes from your Spirit, your Soul. We live in a society that has made people feel that aging and getting old is a dirty, rotten thing. Everything that is sold to women is anti-aging. Too many women are worried about getting old. I never worry about getting old; I think that’s the worse thing to think about. Living life is different for everybody and I think we should just take advantage of being alive.”
Iris Apfel~age 95
“The age part is nothing. I don’t feel any different than I did when I was 25 years old. I get up when I want to. I go to bed when I want to. This is the best part of my life. To me vitality means that you can do whatever you want, regardless of what the clock says. I’m completely free. I don’t owe anybody a dime. Anybody can do it if they want. There’s nothing like it.”
Jim “Pee Wee” Martin~age 96
“New experiences are the only thing you can collect in life that end up being worth it.”
Dick Van Dyke~age 91
“There’s a story that I sometimes like to tell. I wake up in the morning and I check the obituaries, if I’m not in it I have breakfast.”
Carl Reiner~age 95″