In our book of life, there were absolutely countless of incidents wherein we can never escape believing and holding on to the future. Indeed, we can never also predict what is bound to happen in our lives but of course we can set standards on how to live our lives to the best of our abilities. Our capabilities of being rational could be our grip to a better future. In reality, there were several occurrences that might come up unexpectedly but what is imperative for us to do is to have a wide knowledge on how to cope with the crosses of our lives.
It is for a fact that it is base on our past on how we are dealing with our present lives. It was our experiences in our early lives which shape our personalities and it has been considered as one of the focal elements of being mature, “a life course perspective emphasizes the ways in which people’s location in the social system, the historical period in which they live, and the unique personal biography shape their experience of old age” (Stoller and Gibson, 1999). Extremely, it was tough to approach the phase of old age for some reasons of adjustment to a full turn of life.
It was believed that being old corresponds to enormous knowledge brought about by the experiences from the past years, but it was also the time wherein some matured people goes back to being young at heart and mind. As they tend to adapt with the current situation of their lives it goes also hand in hand with emotional adjustments. Apparently, it is not that easy to just cross the bridge from being young to getting old. Physiological, emotional and even psychological rules the event of a tougher situation.
In addition to this, the transcendental factor of dealing with the gaps of life most especially the gap of the older ones to the people that surrounds them could be another note of a sensitive variation of old age, “the aging process is affected by individuals’ personal attributes, their particular life events, and how they adapt to these events” (Stoller and Gibson, 1999). Indeed, it is a delicate but definitely a breath taking phenomenon to deal with the interaction between gender, race, and class most especially if we are talking about life.
As what we have mentioned earlier, there were different levels of approaching a more mature stage – old age, and technically it was not easy to exemplify such. It may possibly arise to several intensities of hierarchies; people can be privileged on some dimensions but disadvantaged on others, this instance goes with the fact that life is actually a revolving process wherein we are bound to tackle a life full mysteries. As we grow older we get the chance to take time to explore life in a more subtle way and without the pressures of work.
This could be the phase wherein we are apt to focus on our family and our grandsons and granddaughters per se. It is a great aspect of life indeed but on another note, the feeling of weakness and even the sensitivity part of dealing with our capabilities will somehow become an issue. We see a lot of elderly folks who became a bit conscious of their capabilities to do things to the point that they even compete with the younger generations.
The presence of inequality as regards to strengths comes in since they do not want to be labeled as feeble or too dependable on others. Take for instance the scenario in Mother to Son wherein it highlights the meaning of aging. Indeed, apart from the fact that life was not easy for the mother, “life for me ain’t no crystal stair, its had tacks in it, and splinters and boards torn up, and places with no carpet on the floor, bare, but all the time I’se been a climbing on and reaching landin’s” (Stoller and Gibson,1999), still at the end the sparks of the lights pours in.
This is a good consideration of what is like to be privileged on some and disadvantageous on others. Maybe we would experience tremendous suffering in life but certainly a shining star will comes in and will definitely enlighten our hearts. The inequality and constriction of racism was a bit hard to imagine because it ultimately size up your capabilities based on your status of life and not with your abilities and talents like that in the Father Cures a Presidential Fever.
In this story also, it was being highlighted the great thought of how trials will lead people and it just depends on how you deal with the circumstance, “everything that I did from this moment on served only to strengthen the grandiose dream whose chief interlocking threads included myself” (Stoller and Gibson, 1999). Despite the hardships, the hope was still at hand and the aspiration for a bright future was the key to strive harder, and this is absolutely the essential justification that sometimes life is advantageous and sometimes it’s not.
As we grow older and become more mature, we face abundance of lessons which will truly define our personality. There were circumstances that we excel in our fields and on the contrary, there were times also that we become unsuccessful in our craft. At any rate, the positive response to this fact was that in any point in our lives we get a message that will truly shape our hearts and minds – this is what our transition in life can put forward to us.
Social roles portrays a great impacts on how we deal with life most especially when you are old enough the concentration is mainly on rearing the children and taking good care of the entire family needs. Practically, when we deal with change, it is absolutely on different criteria on a given maturity levels and this is what was epitomized in the story of Big Boys wherein it could be a gradual acceptance that one has to stop working and face a new phase of life, “I happen to be one of the lucky ones.
When I retired at the age of sixty-five, I thought I have a lot of money to live comfortably” (Stoller and Gibson, 1999). In consonance with this, it is also a transition period wherein a person has to move on and at some point bring to life what he has done in the past and get what is essential to living a life to the fullest in the present time in which there is no work anymore. Of course it is a huge adjustment from a life full of pressures brought about by the demands of work to being a little idle and relaxed because you are free already with the hassles of work related life.
The social worlds can give us new horizons to ponder on but it is good as well to take time to realize that we can also learn form the younger ones, “Do we who are getting on serve only to listen to the young? Have we nothing to tell them that is worth their hearing even if they may feel a little bored hearing it” (Stoller and Gibson, 1999). Their bright ideas can mold us even if we are more mature than them. Listening to the Younger shed some inputs that getting old needs continuity of life – and that is to cease every opportunity to embark perceptions to the younger generation and get something out from them as well.