“You know you are getting old when you start losing stuff.”
Al Pacino says these words in a four-minute stirring speech in the movie ‘Any given Sunday.’
I have heard this speech countless times and especially when I find myself down. Things do get taken from us whether we like it or not and that is a fact. Most of the time we don’t want to accept when we lose someone or something. But our acceptance is irrelevant to the actual loss. I cried for weeks and still get teary thinking of my dog’s death. I loved her so much and she was more than a pet. I still haven’t accepted the fact that she is no more and that I won’t get to see her when I go home every day. But she died and that is the truth.
I hate it when someone ends or begins by saying this is the truth because I know that almost every time I am not going to enjoy listening to it. Climate change, global warming, pollution levels, parents getting older, responsibilities getting bigger, expenditures on the rise and the list is endless.
I can choose to sulk in the sorrow or just accept the fact and move on. My parents are not going to live forever and I won’t either. Thinking about it over and over again and feeling miserable over something that is eventually going to happen is dumbfounded. It ruins our present and it is obviously going to ruin our future. It becomes very important to understand that no matter how happy or sad we are right now, it is not going to last forever.
Things will go south, we will lose our loved ones, the climate is going to get worse, politicians will still be corrupt and we will get old and cranky and eventually lose our health in the process as well. All these are simple truths that we need to accept and move on. Some truths might take us longer to accept than others but eventually, we must accept them. And once we will get past that feeling of loss, we will realize that there is more to life than just heartaches.
Say no to stigmatization
Sushan is micro-biologist at Unilever Quality Assurance
