{"id":2849,"date":"2012-09-08T04:23:18","date_gmt":"2012-09-08T04:23:18","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/forallevents.com\/reviews\/?p=2849"},"modified":"2012-09-08T04:23:18","modified_gmt":"2012-09-08T04:23:18","slug":"you-cant-convince-us","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/forallevents.com\/reviews\/you-cant-convince-us\/","title":{"rendered":"YOU CAN’T CONVINCE US"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"\"<\/a><\/p>\n

WHY ARE WE SO STUBBORN?<\/strong><\/p>\n

Why do you hit your head against the wall?<\/p>\n

Because it feels so good when I stop.<\/p>\n

\n

I see so many people my age struggling to carry packages they could put in a trolley if they would only spend the money to buy one or staggering up set of stairs when the escalator is right there across the hall. I know there is a better way.\u00a0 But just you try to TELL them<\/span> that.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

Do not even consider \u201cMothe<\/strong>r, if you would walk on the side of the street, you wouldn\u2019t block everyone hurrying to the office\u201d because it isn\u2019t going to work.\u00a0 Your mother knows that she keeps her balance better in the middle of the sidewalk and avoiding a broken shoulder is a lot more important to her than her social responsibility not to impede the pedestrians on their way to something she already did years ago\u2026.and if she wants to wear her bedroom slippers with that horrid coat\u2026so what?\u00a0 SHE is retired.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

Just try telling your Dad that if he would have purchased power steering on that huge gas eating clunker he drives, he could parallel park in seconds and not keep smashing his front headlight.\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 He is going to give you that look you hate and say, \u201cI bought this car used ten years ago and I paid cash for it.\u00a0 \u00a0I know how it works and it doesn\u2019t give me any surprises.\u00a0 If it takes me 40 minutes to park it, that isn\u2019t MY problem\u2026.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

I like familiar things.\u00a0 I don\u2019t have to learn how to use them.\u00a0 Silly as it may seem, I don\u2019t like a dishwasher.\u00a0 It feels better to me to wash each dish and know it is clean.\u00a0 It is the same with the car I drive.\u00a0 I can still remember when I bought my Toyota Matrix. \u00a0It was bigger than my ancient Valiant, more fuel efficient and had a great CD player. The first year I drove it, I smashed the right fender so many times the auto repair shop recognized my voice when I called. I hit the wall of the garage twice and I drove in the middle of the road for at least 6 months before I figured out that there was plenty of room on the right.\u00a0 My old car soaked up gas like a drunkard, didn\u2019t have power steering and when it rained water flooded the back seat.\u00a0 But I never hit anything with it.\u00a0 It was familiar. You cannot get me to admit that it wasn\u2019t the king of all cars.\u00a0 I loved it.\u00a0 I understood it.\u00a0 And it understood me.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

That is how it is with older people. We cling to what we used to do because that is comfortable and feels safe.\u00a0 Take credit cards.\u00a0 When I was a kid they didn\u2019t exist.\u00a0 I paid for everything with cash.\u00a0 The idea of shoving a piece of plastic into the wall and getting money was as ridiculous to me as looking up at the clouds and expecting it to rain silver coins.\u00a0 Now I cannot imagine living or traveling without my credit card but I know a lot of my friends who never use them.\u00a0 They like to see the cash, pay with it and get the receipt for the same reason they like to watch your face when they talk to you before they give you an answer.\u00a0 It might not make sense to you, but it does to them.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

There is a couple across the street in their mid eighties who live in a three story house. Bob has sciatica and Sarah has Multiple Sclerosis.\u00a0 They both are in so much pain, they had to crawl up the stairs to get to their bedroom.\u00a0 Finally, after years of coaxing and talking and convincing, they allowed their children to buy them a stair-master so they could both ride upstairs in seconds instead of the half hour they both took, each helping the other.\u00a0 You guessed it.\u00a0 The stair-master has been sitting for five years now, in pristine condition at the bottom of the stairs and my neighbors struggle up the stairs to the bedroom they have slept in for almost 60 years.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

I know just what you are thinking.\u00a0 Why don\u2019t they move the bed downstairs to the living room?\u00a0 I asked them that and Sarah looked at me as if I had suggested she dance naked in the street.\u00a0 \u201cI love my living room just the way it is.\u00a0 I remember when we redecorated it in 2000 and it took me forever to get used to where everything was.\u00a0 I sure don\u2019t want to go through that<\/span> again.\u201d<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

Will and Deborah will celebrate their golden anniversary this year.\u00a0 It will be a sad celebration because Will\u2019s Cerebral Palsy has gotten so much worse and he is in the early stages of Alzheimer\u2019s.\u00a0 Their children have been begging them to have a care giver in to help Deborah cook meals, bathe Will and get him into bed but she is adamant.\u00a0 \u201cI don\u2019t want strangers walking around my house,\u201d she told her daughter.\u00a0 \u201cThey all have butterfingers..\u201d<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

About three months after she said this, she called her daughter and said, \u201dI just took Will to the doctor and he had the best idea!!! He told me about an agency that will send someone out to bathe Will and get him into bed.\u00a0 Isn\u2019t that a wonderful idea?\u201d<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

Her daughter had the wisdom to say, \u201cI think so too!\u201d and not, \u201dWhy wouldn\u2019t you listen to ME when I told you the same thing?\u201d The truth is that if we are going to change our minds, we have to hear a reason from what we think is an expert.\u00a0 That expert is never our children.\u00a0 Ever.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

So next time you say to your mom, \u201cWhy don\u2019t you order those groceries on line?\u201d don\u2019t expect her to say \u201dWhat a good idea!\u201d\u00a0 I will give you odds that her response would be \u201cI like to pick out my own vegetables and fruit.\u00a0 Those delivery people don\u2019t care.\u00a0 All they want to do is make money.\u201d<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

The older we get, the more we do the things we want, not the things we should.\u00a0 We have earned that freedom and you will too, eventually.\u00a0 I make my own rules and take my own advice.\u00a0 When I ushered at The Opera, I seated a 95 year old lady and when I went back to help the next patron, she moved two rows closer.\u00a0 I came back down the aisle to seat someone in the seat she had moved into and I said, \u201cMrs. Stoneham, that isn\u2019t your seat. \u201c She looked up at me her mouth a straight determined line.\u00a0\u00a0 \u201cI LIKE it here,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

That is what we are about.\u00a0 We are going to do what we like and the only way you are going to understand it is when you are 95, sitting in a theater in the seat you want.\u00a0 The usher might have moved you when you were 60 but when you are 95, you\u2019ve earned the right to sit wherever you like.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

WHY ARE WE SO STUBBORN? Why do you hit your head against the wall? Because it feels so good when I stop. I see so many people my age struggling…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":6,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"yasr_overall_rating":0,"yasr_post_is_review":"","yasr_auto_insert_disabled":"","yasr_review_type":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[837],"tags":[],"class_list":{"0":"post-2849","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","6":"category-joe-cillo"},"yasr_visitor_votes":{"stars_attributes":{"read_only":true,"span_bottom":"