In the United States, and throughout much of the world, our population is aging. There are multiple reasons for this. The urbanization of most societies has led to a desire for smaller families on the part of most people. Modern, effective contraceptives have made penile-vaginal intercourse without conception a reality. Better nutrition, sanitation, and health care have extended life expectancies. As a result of these factors, we have more elderly people alive today.
Reflecting on this fact led me to recall a short-short story I wrote about again that was published many years ago in “The Arizona Unconservative.†I’d be interested to learn what my blog readers think of it.
“A Message, Choked-Backâ€ÂÂ
by
Denise Noe
First you get wrinkled and gray. Then you get REAL wrinkled and
your hair is white. And you shrink and hump over.
But what happens when you get really old–and it doesn’t happen to many people because most die before my age–is that your skin can’t wrinkle any more so it turns SOFT. My skin hangs down in squishy strips like it’s made of some weird kind of cotton candy which is about to turn to liquid.
When I see other people look at me–even old people, the white-haired wrinkled ones–I feel funny. Maybe it’s just my imagination but it seems like they look at me like I did something bad. And I feel ashamed–so stupidly guilty.
It’s crazy, I know, but I want to tell them: “I didn’t mean to get this old! It happened because I kept on living.”
