THE BEATLES song goes, “ will you still need me, will you still feed me, when I ‘m sixty four?” and the query and insecurity continues, “ if I go home at quarter to three, would you lock the door?” and “ will you still give me birthday greetings and bottle of wine?” for that time “ many years from now,” Well, in my case, I have just reached the age of sixty four years.
I am fortunate that I still do not feel old. I have partially retired from full time corporate employment. Still this is more political rather than managerial merit or burnout. I still do my usual teaching, consultancy work and provide advice and service for specific deals and enterprises.
I can no longer read as much or as fast as before although my eyesight is still good. I lack the previous stamina and focus.
Having suffered a stroke seven years before, I am on a regimen of maintenance medicine, which I take faithfully, and try to insert some exercise periods every now and then. I have totally stopped smoking and drinking after more than forty years of daily and serious companionship.
I watch my diet although I am not very strict or meticulous about it. And I have regular periodic checkups. I never
paid much attention to these concerns before. But now, suddenly I feel my sense of mortality.
It also shocks and saddens me that some of my peers, classmates, relatives and friends, whom I have always considered to be within my age group have passed on, hopefully to heaven.
I hate to use the word “died” because some of them seemed to be active and immortal that dying unexpectedly was the last thing that would happen. Now, most of the people I see and interact with are generally younger than me.
It used to be the opposite and I addressed everybody as “po” or sir. Now everybody calls me sir ( and not because I am their teacher) and, worse of all, others have the temerity to kiss my hand, even in front of the pretty
ladies.
There are, however, some advantages. As a senior citizen, with an ID, one gets discounts from restaurants and
other establishments, even for one’s medicines and gets preferential treatment for activities like quequing and parking.
It also gives me a kick when the pretty cashier requires me to show the senior citizen ID, my picture and signature for the discounted receipt to prove my senior status. I almost would like to wave my entitled discounts
and proclaim my youth to validate her doubts.
The age structure distribution in the Philippines reveals a great number of the population belong to the youth, the age group of 19 years old and below. Roughly, I do not have the precise figure, these are almost 50%.
The rest are in the middle age and the senior and elderly groups. The young are not yet productive.
They belong almost entirely to the consuming sector and are therefore the burden of the much smaller number of the productive sector which is composed of the older population.
This is more serious when we consider that just because one is old one is necessarilly productive.Take the case of the unemployed, the underemployed, the bums and the politicians. This sector adds to the consumption burden.
Economic policy should find structures and processes to keep its senior citizens gaingully employed and productive.
This is to take advantage of their experience and learning. The youth will have to be prepared for a future life of productive contribution. This is their now. The seniors are still a current resource which must be utilized.
When I’m sixty four will mean that now I am sixty four, I have just began to contribute more significantly to my society.
