Normal People in the Home

The residents at the home are real people, or at least they were before they retired and became part of the vast assembly of the Boomer Generation that has hit Social Security benefit rolls. They worked for businesses and companies like Halliburton and Eli Lily. They were soldiers and sailors and farmers and salesmen; the women were secretaries and teachers and mothers and some if them were soldiers, too. They have surrendered most of the responsibilities for the workplace and government endeavor, but the experience and the wisdom that came for that life is still available and sharp. 

I enjoy their insight and humor at mealtimes and in conversations. Several of the people I consider friends here have arrived at a stage in life where they can view the pain or difficulty of their situation with a calm and tolerant attitude. Humor seems to be one of the major life skills they have achieved.

There are people who live here who have not graduated to that level of life stage development. Some are still fixed at Kolhberg's elementary stages of Moral Development. One contact focused on fairness as the standard of behavior. Some people rest in the prestige of their achievements in the buiness world before retirement. If they don't continue to grow, those victories are soon forgotten by others.    

Retirement and growing old are not excuses for remaining in the same intellectual and psychological state forever. We are always responsible for the way we think and believe. Being a resident of the home doesn't mean we can sit back and let life happen to us. The brain learns and grows as long as we live, and we benefit or suffer as a result. Retirement means we are excused from work, but not from growing and learning.