What to do and when!

We ‘to state the bleedin obvious’ are getting older day by day and we hardly recognise our infirmities, usually not until we have to; in some senses it can be asked if its better to have infirmities earlier in life [hopefully giving us the chance or ability to adapt and get used to living with them or not to have them and it’s the spare of years that comes as a blessing? I’ll let you decide on that.

For many its not even a choice or the onset of time that brings-about infirmities through ageing as many people are born with conditions that they’ve had to deal with/handle [some since birth] I myself have slightly deformed kneed and lower legs which almost shout-out that their development were retarded or on a slow-growth unlike the rest of my body – thankfully I was born with no other conditions that impeded life from taking-place but after a few years of corrected-walking practices by me it was clear to me that it wasn’t going to be a life-long impediment and I could live with being viewed as the person with the funny walk and if I just slowed-down a little then its not that noticeable – but we rarely view ourselves fully or properly as another would ‘ourselves or us’ do we? no!

So, I was thinking about the dreaded ‘social care’ that is simply not a desired position to find yourself in ‘needing to do’ – so undesirable is it that as a profession or simply a job it rarely appeals to many in the out-of-work force [the so-called unemployed – which is a misnomer as every unemployed person still needs to cook clean and shop for themselves – there is or are no helpers helping the unemployed with all of that – why should there be? They have so much time on their hands that its simply up to them ‘as and when’ they do such things – indeed many unemployed people choose unemployment as an option ‘all so they can be ‘time abundant’ over anything else.

Getting back to ‘care’ though. I think its fair to state in all ‘cultures’ one of the first thing any infant gets drilled-into them is self-care ‘clean your teeth and wipe your arse’ and eventually don’t be a drama queen about things with the eponymous killer-line every child who plays-up hears ‘well, everyone else does it’ and there’s no retort worth hearing that comes after that – we just get on with it.

So, it really begs the question if by human-design of best practice of ‘caring for ourselves’ do we bulk at caring for other humans – we’ve been shown by parental-guidance and schooling and even hours of practice that LOOKING AFTER YOURSELF ranks as highly as eating/drinking/pissing and shitting and breathing – but we bulk at doing what we’re all practiced-in for anyone but ourselves – the truth of the matter is no-one who is a fully-grown adult can lay claim that they don’t have the skills to do what they naturally do for themselves and with a straight face say that these can’t be applied to another human – you’ve got to make that link between being a caring person when someone is injured and you step-up and see that when infirmity strikes another a helping offer is just as necessary to be offered even though it may be politely refused for whatever reason – no, the only real reason help is not offered or given is it may show-up the givers infirmities and that is really not a loss many can take the risk of being exposed to – I often think that people still see the ‘infirm-route’ as being the route to the end and once down and infirm ‘that’s it’ it’s a one-way trip to the end and no recovery is imminent or possible and we’re wasting our time with the people who need care – and it’s a pathway to the final exit that is needed – I say or retort – if for a moment we all thought about the years of training we each have put into self-care and its value – we wouldn’t be so quick to ignore and snuff-out the people who are by no fault other than ageing but perhaps a few wrong turns or decisive paths of practices like smoking or eating have weakened themselves but with the care of recovery will be able to turn things around – imagine a youth being told their fitness training wasn’t going to be used in a career as a sports-trainer for youngsters but they’d be in a career looking after older adults – then you wouldn’t need to even state it was a caring position but just suggest it was fitness for older adults and that would be far more appealing as a caring-role.

But my main thrust today is as said – we must try to get-over and view ‘caring’ for others as just a very natural extension of what we naturally do for ourselves, if only that we ALL as humans become aware of our own frailties and remember if you see you are no longer able to do stuff for yourself as you once did then you are seeing the IMPORTANCE of being ‘looked-after’ in the way every human sees slowly slipping-away from their lives and asked the question in the title of this post – what to do and when… … you feel like you need ‘the care’ of others and at that age of real need the family may not be around and you may have lost a lot of contact with friends [who may well be as infirm as yourself] and finally apart from asking about services available at your surgery – do you actually know where to turn-to – and if people don’t step-up to extend themselves to care for you soon – in ways beyond simply being put in a care-home until the end of your days then more and more people are going to be filled with a resentment they can only ever put down to – ‘they were able to help – but for whatever reasons they chose not to – but you can smile when you think – when its their turns to be old and infirm they’ll be no-one for them – but hey, actually don’t tell them as it’ll be far more poignant for them to see ‘how they lived – coming back on them’ [you don’t have to say they’ll see for themselves what having no wider social-care means but they’ll find-out]… … but that’s the final thing invest in a future where a small-click of people help a small bunch of people in and with private finance and you’ll only ever help a small bunch of people – but let people be aware they already have the ‘implements’ within them to extend care beyond themselves and they’ll step-up naturally – remember this: what happened to bring the best out of people A CRISIS of such mammoth proportions – that the ones who thought themselves incapable found they were capable, which begs the question that the only thing that ever boots up up the arse and out of complacency is a supposed crisis apparently – so perhaps all this doom and gloom is the best thing for humanity as it makes us stand-up and act – I say if that’s all that is needed to get us to get a shake-on then perhaps the greatest pretence should be ‘invent a crisis’ as that certainly has been what a stagnating world needed four years ago and it worked a treat – I finally suggest you all make a card with every perceivable threat to human existence on it and then cross-off what has already happened in history and as humans like the new/exciting or unexpected just wait to cross-off from the card that which hasn’t happened yet – as that’s simply what ALL HUMANS are waiting for – but I say with conviction – some things will never happen or are meant to happen in a standard lifetime and hey, that may disappoint you or be a blessed-relief – I personally pretty-much take it as it comes – as a simple – oh that’s a possibility has a way of manifesting if you aren’t holding-onto the reins strongly enough – know what I mean? I hope you do!

STRENGTH IS OFTEN SIMPLY KNOWING IF YOU FEEL YOU CAN OR CANNOT DO SOMETHING YOU HAVE THE NEED TO DO!