Too Old?

National Botanical Gardens, Washington, DC   Copyright 2012: singeronthesand

...in the day that the watchmen of the house tremble,

and mighty men stoop,

the grinding ones stand idle because they are few,

and those who look through windows grow dim.

Ecclesiastes 12:3

A fellow musician friend of mine said to me today, "I hate getting older!"   She was bemoaning the fact that she does not learn piano passages as quickly and easily as she once did.  But I understood the emotion behind the statement, because I feel that way at times as well.  When I get out of bed in the morning and my knees are suddenly creaky, or the exact word I am searching for just will not come to mind, I get a bit disgusted with myself for "getting old!"

As the Baby Boomer population ages, many seniors will have to grapple with the fact that they just don't do some things as well or as quickly as they used to.  No where does that show up more vividly than in driving an automobile.  One of the hardest parts of dealing with an aging parent is the decision for when to remove the car keys.  In Los Angeles, California, one family apparently did not take them away soon enough.

This morning, an elderly gentleman visited a local grocery store, parking his large, powder blue Cadillac in the parking lot.  When he went to leave, he put the car in reverse, but instead of backing into the street, he backed onto the sidewalk across from an elementary school, hitting 14 people, including 11 children.  Children's backpacks, shoes and candy littered the scene after the accident.  The driver claimed to the media that his brakes had failed, but witnesses, including the mothers of some of the injured children, said that the gentleman was not paying attention, and apparently did not see or hear the pedestrians until frantic mothers pounded on his windows, screaming for him to stop.  The age of the driver?  Almost 101 years old (his birthday is September 5).

The man had a valid driver's license as well as active car insurance, begging the question of why DMV would allow a 100-year-old man to continue driving.  The police captain said, "I think it (the accident) was a miscalculation on his part.  The gentleman is elderly.  Obviously he is going to have some impairment in his decision making."  Hopefully the police confiscated his driver's license for further review.  Anyone who "obviously" has any impairment should not be driving an automobile.