This was the punch line for a cartoon in Playboy Magazine that appeared sometime in the 1960’s, by Gahan Wilson. The cartoon was of a little naked man inside what looked like a cardboard box that was laying on it’s side with him in the open side looking out, and scowling.
There was a lot of truth to that cartoon then and nothing has changed in the 60 or so years since I saw it. What brings me to think of this now is that the very last friend I had is now gone, not by dying, just by abandonment.
I’ve been watching the changes in attitude toward me as the effects of my aging become more prominent. My hearing is degrading along with my eyesight and physical strength and the wrinkles are steadily increasing. The only thing that isn’t slowly failing me is my brain. The rest is going where aging takes it. I’m not a different person, I’m still the same guy, I just don’t look like it the way I used to, I have to wear a hearing aid in public now if I want to hear what a waitress or clerk is saying and I need reading glasses to read menus, receipts and so forth.
My friend, though 34 years younger than me, is aging faster than I am, probably from getting a couple of those Covid poison injections, so maybe it’s just fear of aging that I’m too much of a reminder of. In any case, the more I’ve aged, the less interest or respect for my friendship has been shown me and it’s plainly gone beyond repair.
I think the only real lesson to take from this is that we should be grateful for the good times. Like everything else in life, they don’t last. If we hang on to that which is no longer there, we keep ourselves from moving on to new good times. And that, ladies and gentlemen, is my Philosophy Hint For Today.
Photo of volunteers on this page. Who is that ghastly old git with a youngish lady’s arm round his shoulder?
https://william-robinson.org.uk/
That’s a good looking Sheila, you horny old codger, but with the kind of luck you keep griping about, she’s probably your daughter. Oh well, there’s still the 60 year old, she can’t run from you in that wheelchair. Nice hat, same one I wear to rock hound meets in the desert sun. I had no idea you were so stylish.
You sure ain’t losing yer brain, constant inneresting stuff on here.
I hate it when I people take photos with me in at my volunteer things and I have to look that scraggy old thing online. Still, various people I know seem to age a lot faster. Recently lost a neighbour lady I used to spend time with and she was far more wrinkly than me, although nearly 5 years younger. Another lady I know who needs a wheelchair to get up the road told me the other day she was 60. I can still run up a bit of hill at nearly 80.