Many years ago, a case known as Torcaso v. Watkins established that a belief in God was not necessary for a belief system to qualify as a religion.
I never forgot about the case and over time, it became clear that in addition to established mainstream religions there were a whole bunch of belief systems, complete with non theistic “articles of faith” that could easily qualify as religions as established by Torcaso v. Watkins.
For example, one of our most entrenched non-theistic belief systems relates to accepted practices and thinking for those “of a certain age.” It’s what I call the religion of Fogeyism Don’t laugh. It is so insidious that many, if not most people at midlife or beyond are practitioners to some degree without realizing it.
Did you ever notice that there are some things that just don’t matter any more? Things seem to lose their places: important things, trivial things, ceremonial things, traditional things. (This, by the way, is a little different than when things like reading glasses and lists lose their places.) I am speaking of priorities that change. And the attitudes and behaviors that follow those changes.
During a recent visit to a local coffee-shop I overheard an interesting conversation between two women. Actually, it was more like a monologue by one of the women, for an audience of one, who punctuated and supported the others’ remarks with a series of nods and ‘uh-huhs.’
The first woman seemed to be making a lengthy, verbal “to-do” list of everything she needed to get to in the near future. It sounded almost like a project manager’s punch list.
Is the stereotype of the lonely senior citizen a reality or a myth? Research suggests that although aging brings with it some life circumstances that increase the likelihood of loneliness, personal choices are the important variable.
Investigators have defined several possible scenarios regarding the relationship between loneliness and health. One suggests that loneliness is a cause -- perhaps preceding a decline in mental or physical health and actually contributing to problems in both of those areas.
Even as we age I think we are sometimes at risk for unnecessary suffering. There are things that we do and thoughts that we have simply because we have always done -- or had -- them. Yet, often, our circumstances change before out habits, attitudes and thoughts have a chance to catch up.
Take shopping for example. You have a retirement budget and, quite possibly, an income that is less than when you were working full time. Yet there are still the same number of bright, young, highly-skilled marketing professionals who make a career out of telling you that you need more stuff.
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Life Skills - Living Life Optimistically(Open) (12/07/07)
