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You know, when I was a kid, there was this prevailing view amongst many adults that the Dr. Spock, baby-boom generation children were all pampered, spoilt and generally "soft". They'd say "You've never lived through a war or a depression. You've never known hard times!" Or: "The young people of today don't know they're born. They've had every need and want gratified before they even know they need or want it." They would argue that their own generation just didn't have the luxury of "finding themselves" or being peaceniks.
When we became parents ourselves, some of us were accused of over-programming our kids and becoming "helicopter parents". A little ironic, perhaps, for a generation that rebelled against military, academic and corporate rigidity and just wanted to hang out and chill out like good be-sandaled and be-love-beaded flower children.
How are young people doing now? I've been following this series with interest:
https://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/ottawa/covid-diaries-three-young-ottawans-1.5798700?cmp=rss
And how are older people doing? Many of them survived unbearable hardships over the course of their long and storied lives, only to be felled in the end by Covid-19. Here's one example:
https://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/toronto/canada-covid-19-coronavirus-ontario-deaths-1.5804035
Meanwhile, another older person of whom you've probably heard, is sounding alarm bells not just about humans in captivity, but also other apes and pachyderms:
https://www.cbc.ca/news/politics/jane-goodall-ape-elephant-captivity-1.5803836?cmp=rss
I'm thinking the time may be right and ripe for Senator Murray Sinclair's bill to evoke the required degree of sympathy for our fellow animals.
But the Big Question I've been mulling over in my mind for the past few days is this: What about those older folks in our lives who died BEFORE Covid-19 arrived? How well - or badly - would they be viewing and coping with the pandemic if they were still alive today?
My mother, in her later years, seemed to have lost quite a bit of her will to live, or at least to live with the infirmities that old age had bestowed upon her. She would quite often say, "I hate being like this," and "I'm not afraid to die, you know." Maybe Covid-19 would have been, for her, the last straw. But I do recall her asking, quite late in life, "Do you think there's really any GOOD way to die?" I was there when she did cross that threshold, although to this day, I don't know the exact moment it happened.
I wasn't there when my dad died, although his death was far from unexpected. I kind of think he would have just accepted Covid-19 with a kind of quiet stoicism - whatever happens, happens.
I'll leave things there for now, although further musings may make it into this blog, or into my memoirs.
When we became parents ourselves, some of us were accused of over-programming our kids and becoming "helicopter parents". A little ironic, perhaps, for a generation that rebelled against military, academic and corporate rigidity and just wanted to hang out and chill out like good be-sandaled and be-love-beaded flower children.
How are young people doing now? I've been following this series with interest:
https://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/ottawa/covid-diaries-three-young-ottawans-1.5798700?cmp=rss
And how are older people doing? Many of them survived unbearable hardships over the course of their long and storied lives, only to be felled in the end by Covid-19. Here's one example:
https://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/toronto/canada-covid-19-coronavirus-ontario-deaths-1.5804035
Meanwhile, another older person of whom you've probably heard, is sounding alarm bells not just about humans in captivity, but also other apes and pachyderms:
https://www.cbc.ca/news/politics/jane-goodall-ape-elephant-captivity-1.5803836?cmp=rss
I'm thinking the time may be right and ripe for Senator Murray Sinclair's bill to evoke the required degree of sympathy for our fellow animals.
But the Big Question I've been mulling over in my mind for the past few days is this: What about those older folks in our lives who died BEFORE Covid-19 arrived? How well - or badly - would they be viewing and coping with the pandemic if they were still alive today?
My mother, in her later years, seemed to have lost quite a bit of her will to live, or at least to live with the infirmities that old age had bestowed upon her. She would quite often say, "I hate being like this," and "I'm not afraid to die, you know." Maybe Covid-19 would have been, for her, the last straw. But I do recall her asking, quite late in life, "Do you think there's really any GOOD way to die?" I was there when she did cross that threshold, although to this day, I don't know the exact moment it happened.
I wasn't there when my dad died, although his death was far from unexpected. I kind of think he would have just accepted Covid-19 with a kind of quiet stoicism - whatever happens, happens.
I'll leave things there for now, although further musings may make it into this blog, or into my memoirs.
