The recent tragic death of the retired four-term Connecticut Senator, Joseph Lieberman, seemed to have provided the personal impetus for the present expression of a long-contemplated theme articulated in this mini-essay. More specifically and accurately, it was, as reported, the appalling cause of his death, viz., “From a fall, in his home.”
The statistics notably reveal that falls are the number one cause of death for the elderly. When young children fall during play, they are up in a moment, usually, none the worse for wear. However, by empirical contrast, the risks and consequences of falls in the case of the elderly are incomparably, more serious. With aging comes the loss of physical strength, conditioning, and balance. [To take the liberty of expressing a personal, anecdotal, and relevant note, our mother passed away shortly after a fall which caused a fracture to her thigh.]
The Greek classic “Riddle of the Sphinx,” can be perceived as contextually relevant. The apocryphal Oedipus, arriving at Thebes, was confronted with solving a presented, life-determining enigma, “What has four legs in the morning, two legs in the afternoon, and three legs in the evening? Sophocles’ protagonist, not in the least exemplified by the paucity of reason, replied, “Man.” For those readers who lack the facility of the iteration of the ancient Greek language, the solution to the riddle was thoughtfully answered by the apocryphal Greek King, as,” Man.” (i.e., who crawls as a baby, stands on two legs as an adult, and walks with a stick in old age). The context of the present writing is centered on the emotionally self-deprecating, and ego-altering, personal dependence on the “stick.”
Man’s aged scenario of the “stick,” is one, featuring the gamut of ambulatory paraphernalia, the cane, the walker, (three or four-wheeled), and, as needed, the wheelchair. The recognized physical need for such auxiliary support props makes existentially necessary, a substantive re-adjustment of one’s former self-image and reliable assurance of normal capability and an uncomfortable reassessment of previous assumptions of agency. We feel qualified to make such observations on this age-normal, phenomenon, based upon our present ambulatory dependence on a (three-wheeled) walker, not to omit the available, ego-altering, but pragmatically fortuitous, assistance when needed, of a devoted spouse.
One is pragmatically obliged to strive, on a rational and mature basis, when timely, to personally acquire a mature acceptance and accommodation with said eternal phenomena of aging, the consequential result of a lifetime’s toll on muscles, joints, and other well-used facilities of human physiology. However, the latter “metamorphic” developments would be significantly more acceptable to the aging individual if they were not universally accompanied by the ever-present danger and ominous prospect of a possible precipitous fall and consequent injury.
Humanistic and pragmatic consideration of the civic promotion of universally more secure and enjoyable longevity, would suggest the passage of a beneficial, public-spirited, and well-deserved legislative amendment, or “carve out,” regarding the application of the Law of Gravity, as applicable to the elderly citizen; at a very minimum in the environs of his own home.
-p.
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