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Friday, August 18, 2006

Living Dead

Posted by on August 18 at 16:45 PM

Walking into a pharmacy, as I did a moment ago, is walking into the kingdom of very old people (80 and above). A very old person is nothing more than a coffin on two legs. They remind us of (they insist on) the other death—the gradual, gravity-heavy death. Are you marked for violent death? If not, then this is the way you and I shall go, so slow, so bitter, so ugly.


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You're right as usual, Charles. Old people should just die instead of hanging around and callously reminding us of our mortality.

If you're black in america as you well know Charles, you can't rule out the possibility of violent death if you don't make it to ugly forgetful old age.

Lloyd: Well, except for one thing. I worked at a smorgasbord, and the old people would flock there, and they loved to eat, and they'd just jam their mouths, you know? And they'd just eat with their mouths open, and to be honest, it was too much for me. You get to be thinking about how short life is, and how maybe everything has no meaning, because you wake up, and you're frying burgers, and you're like 60, 70, and then you check out, you know? What are you doing? And I dont need to be thinking about those kind of things. Thats the reason......But I'm not sure about all that.

Diane: I think that's ageism, and that's being prejudiced against people because they're old.

Lloyd: Really? Well, you're really turning me around here.

sigh. you know, Charles, if you were in Russia, you'd be dead already, cause you're a very old person there.

think about it.

now, stop bugging us, it's Friday.

ageism: socially acceptable discrimination!

Charles, when you're 72, we'll come for you with a cyanide pie. What a way to go! ;-)

Charles, I hope you get laid this weekend. You seriously need it.

being old = better than the alternative

Elenchos - thanks for the Say Anything excerpt. Funny.

As for you, Charles...you suck. That was a disgusting post. How very...American of you.


Charles, that coffin comment made no sense. I mean, in general, it does suck to be old, but please.

Here's a person I hope will never die. He's 94:

http://www.studsterkel.org/

Hi Charles...
I'm not 80, but I am Social Security old. If the idea of old age is so revolting to you, feel free to activate your alternative death scenario at any time. Don't let us, the "gravity heavy", stop you.
The top floor of the Bon Macy's Parking Lot has always been a favorite jumping off point for Seattle's other disaffected Hegelian poseurs.

Don't despair, Charles. There is still plenty of opportunity in your 30s and 40s to get leukemia or have a heart attack or maybe even good old cirrhosis of the liver.

It does always surprise me how afraid people are of not existing. Especially when I see those "Aren't you glad your mother chose life?" stickers. Really, if she hadn't, I wouldn't ever care, would I? It's ego (common, not Freudian, sense) run amok, when one cannot fathom one's existance as anything other than an absolute given.

I hope I get old and I am glad that one day I will die. I don't see old people as coffins on two feet, or however you put it, but it's not all glamorous or that horrible. You just never know. I love interacting with older folks, it has enriched my life experiences that I continue to enjoy, mostly, so, once I get to the 60's or 70's, I won't feel like it's all been such a depressing waste of time. Charles, maybe you were just in a mood, hope you cheer up soon.

Working at a hospital... I just wish everyday I don't end up like the old, dying people.

Give me a morphine overdose so I can die peacefully before suffering, waiting to die.

In my family, we all die in our 60's of strokes and hope we don't end up like grampa ****, shuffling and slobbering and a burden to you all.

posts like this make me think, i love charles mudede. the best.

Charles another dreamy, poetic posting. I'd never noticed how everyone in the pharmacy is old untill now. Thanks for making my day.

THE LADS in their hundreds to Ludlow come in for the fair,
There’s men from the barn and the forge and the mill and the fold,
The lads for the girls and the lads for the liquor are there,
And there with the rest are the lads that will never be old.

There’s chaps from the town and the field and the till and the cart,
And many to count are the stalwart, and many the brave,
And many the handsome of face and the handsome of heart,
And few that will carry their looks or their truth to the grave.

I wish one could know them, I wish there were tokens to tell
The fortunate fellows that now you can never discern;
And then one could talk with them friendly and wish them farewell
And watch them depart on the way that they will not return.

But now you may stare as you like and there’s nothing to scan;
And brushing your elbow unguessed-at and not to be told
They carry back bright to the coiner the mintage of man,
The lads that will die in their glory and never be old.

A E Housman

What the...hell? Why would you want to share these thoughts with the general public?

When do we get a rebuttal from the coffins-on-legs? I think my energetic, bright, gym-rat 84-year old grandmother would like to have a word with you, if she can muster up the will to speak from her bitter cavern of despond.

What an ugly post, Charles. I'm hoping it was hangover induced.

Dreamy and poetic? You've got to be kidding. The coffin-on-legs comment sounds like something I would have said when I was 15.

With all of this society's care and energy aimed at its children and youth, it's no wonder people are indifferent and apathetic towards old folks.

We should be tapping into their wisedom so that we don't make off-handed remarks about them.

Dreamy and poetic? You've got to be kidding.

She is. Every time Charles posts--with OCD regularity--Anne sarcastically chimes in with how dreamy and poetic his words are. Always those adjectives, every time. Must be very therapeutic.

Charles' posts are no joke to me. They always make my day. Just because you don't enjoy Charles' brilliance, don't assume everyone else thinks he's a joke. He is dreamy and poetic.

Case in fucking point. If sarcasm were a drug, you'd have OD'd a long time ago.

I have two grandmothers in their nineties in similar health. One doesn't give a shit about what anyone thinks of her. She has a good time and laughs her ass off. My other grandmother is always talking about her ailments, is afraid of the world and thinks she's too old to try anything new. Although I accept I will be old one day, watching my grandmothers has caused me to realize the "coffin on two legs" thing is totally related to attitude.

Also, when I'm old I'm going to get laid often. Just like I'm sure Sue Johanson does:

http://www.talksexwithsue.com/index2.html

Welp, you heard it from the man himself. Africans don't like to age. Growing old sucks. They prefer to die young, hence the endless wars, starvation & genocide. The Hutus who murdered all those Tutsis and fellow Hutus in Rwanda (& in the Congo _and_ in Burundi) were actually being kind to them by blissfully removing them from the horrors of old age. The Civil War in Sierra Leone was a message to the rest of the world: Party Young! Kill as many people as you can before your 15th birthday while hopped on coke & X, because, you know, old age is a bitch.

Where would us ignorant whities be without Mr. Mudede to show us the folly of our ways (like trying to stop starvation & HIV-infection in Africa.)


oh dear charles.. you know i love you but sometimes... sometimes..
listen getting old represents the getting of wisdom. young people may be smart, but wisdom is the kingdom of the old. and if you have any respect or rather desire for it, then you'll want to enter therein..
and being older than you, i look forward to living long enough to one day encounter a wise charles. and then i hope to live longer..
but shit do hurt though...

Charels, as usual, you are full of shit.

My 82 year old mother is a beautiful, funny, classy, lady who gives the air of someone waiting - not uncomfortably, not anxiously, but nonetheless waiting - for a ride home from a party that, while still entertaining, is getting a trifle stale.

When her time comes, she'll finish what's left of her cocktail, snub out her cigarette, put her stole around her shoulders, and get in that celestial Cadillac - never having wasted time on pretentious dweebs like you.

My mom is not quite eighty, and she's running her third antique business, writing a column for the local paper, and continuing her involvement in city politics. Being old doesn't mean you're a "walking coffin" (what a disgusting term). For heaven's sake lighten up or increase your medication.

Noink-
I like your mind.
Something I've rolled about the noggin' for years now.

Noink-
I like your mind.
Something I've rolled about the noggin for years now.

Oh, in terms of good places to die, please don't jump off the Aurora Bridge, it makes a mess. It's far better if you go steal a really low mpg car - say, a Hummer - and drive into the Sound.

Trust me.

Me, I'll be like most of my relatives, and live to at least 100.

And if you do choose to drive your Hummer into the Sound, please don't do it off of the end of one of the Washington State Ferries.

Do you have any idea the delay something like that causes?

Perhaps this will suffice as your epitaph Charles:

Stay, if you list, O passer by the way;
Yet night approaches; better not to stay.
  I never sigh, nor flush, nor knit the brow,
  Nor grieve to think how ill God made me, now.
Here, with one balm for many fevers found,
Whole of an ancient evil, I sleep sound.

Charles,
On further thought this might be a more approprate epitaph:

"I thought an exception would be made in my case."

Thanks for the motivation, Charles. Now I'll stick around an extra ten just to give you THIS.

It's not the clue you need, but time wounds ALL heels.

Dreamy and poetic? Yeah, like Vachel Lindsay meets Ed Sanders.

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