A short while back, I posted on my Next Door app about experiencing frustration with aging boomers who are highly resistant in recognizing their own need(s) for genuine help and assistance. You know, the people who won't get proper prescription lenses as their vision changes for the worse...or proper hearing aids when they keep asking "Huh?" like it's their new job...or a proper cane/walker/motorized scooter when it takes 30 minutes to walk ten feet. And don't get me started on driving a car and the issue of public safety when I see more and more aging boomers driving like they live in the middle of a cornfield somewhere.
I just saw a guy park his car half in the road and half pointed towards the nearest curb in the middle of my downtown shopping district the other day. Why? God only knows. When I passed him by, he was looking up at a map he had raised over his head inside his vehicle. Oh...and he was "parked" like that right in front of a stop sign on a street with only one lane going in both directions. For you locals, at the stop sign on Cady at Griswold. Say what?!
So after I posted what I did emphasizing how pride and arrogance can ruin the aging boomer in need of proper help across one or more areas of functioning...you would have thought I posted "Euthanize All Aging Boomers!" (And, obtw, I am an aging boomer myself!). It was a trip actually. People accused me of ageism...hating "old" people...not having any empathy or compassion for seniors (my colleague and I just did two youtube shows on this topic earlier that same week!)...and one poster even told me to go volunteer and work with aging boomers so I could learn from them. Another blasted me for having a frozen smile on my profile photo. LOL! Talk about the gang mentality of subjectively-based judgment, conviction, and execution (of me and my post); yep, I was attacked and bullied, misinterpreted, misrepresented, and maligned because...???
So...of course this is why today's blog post is so important for all of us! Got objectivity? It's easy to lose our ability to think rationally and logically---especially when we can't, won't, or do not want to understand much besides our own personal brand of reality in any given moment.
These days, we don't need much to go on the warpath. Have you noticed that? Even saying out loud what I just wrote here, I would be chastised for "You can't say "warpath"! That's disrespectful to the American Indians who were a peaceful people and whose land was stolen out from under them by the white man at that time!" "Wait! You can't say "white man"; a man is not white or black or brown or red or yellow! A man is a man regardless of the color of his skin!" "You can't describe humans by colors like red or yellow! What's wrong with you?" OMG STOP! When will it ever end?! (Note to self: It will no doubt only get worse as we continue to lose our empathy and compassion towards one another as members of the SAME human family...).
When I was a kid, I was big...and I was fat. Every kid in my same grade growing up knew this. Their eyeballs worked. The kind-enough kids didn't call me names. The not-so-kind kids did call me names. The end. If we are going to categorize what it means to be "woke" in a meaningful way...can we at least acknowledge that thinking, feeling, and behaving "unkindly" is NOT a good thing? I have discussed this issue with many individuals over recent years; I have yet to meet or speak with someone who didn't see the significance of establishing personal boundaries around the issue of "kindness" with individuals, couples, families, and/or groups of people who have NO respect for themselves and, as a result, no respect for anyone else either! Sadly, too many of us are losing or have already lost our compassion towards each other, because we lost our desire to understand and respect each other long before that....
To be objective is to be able to see reality as it truly is, not just the way we want it to be with either a "false positive" or a "false negative" spin attached. Back to my boomer dumpster fire post. I did NOT post "Euthanize All Aging Boomers!"; instead, I posted "Boomers...get help when you need it so yourself and others don't suffer needlessly over your denial about what's actually going on with you!" (If I had to title what I wrote, that'd be it!) Even when I have been to the hospitals and to the rehabs to see my "aging boomer" clients, I have been told things like "No, I don't need a motorized scooter yet!" when the social worker was just in the room saying, "We can coordinate getting you a motorized scooter for you at home.." Huh?!?! Yeah, it's like that. We often choose NOT to face what we would rather not face! We prefer subjectivity. We lack objectivity. Don't make us realize what we don't want to realize...at least not until we decide when that'll happen!
Preferring not to see the reality of our own lives, or the lives of those we love and care about, AND the lives of people we don't even know...this is our collective and dysfunctional jam in the 21st century. We are getting madder and meaner over those who don't agree with us 100% about pretty much anything and everything. This is why you end up listening to an old high school friend telling you at your next reunion why the aliens have been working with both Donald Trump and President Biden to systematically poison our water, air, and food supply through the use of "universal chemicals" that will eventually kill us all.
On that note, keep it real. Or at least try to. You'll be better off for it...and you'll be on your way to practicing objectivity more often in your day-to-day life. How about that?
Until next post....