Dodging Bullets

This is a game we can play if we ever run short of senior moments. Hunting has never been my love, probably because my father was not a hunter, nor did we live near hunting relatives. Yet we do live with lots of bullets whizzing by.

We live in a state surrounded on three sides by fresh water. However, we are constantly dodging bullets. Should we dam rivers to modify geography which has seen and unforeseen side effects? Should we make our fresh water available to arid states? Should we allow ocean going vessels dump their salt water residue into our fresh waters? Should we allow foreign companies bottle our pure water by the millions of gallons?

Recently another bullet sailed by. We have a vintage ship which years ago criss-crossed Lake Michigan and is now looking for a permanent resting place. A berth was located but it partially blocked the view of an existing restaurant. Now what? We also read that we might face a shortage of salt to keep the snowfall in check on our streets (a couple of nearby states recently had two to four feet of snow which is rather early say the experts). What we don't need are white Halloweens. And of course, our recent election revealed a lot of near misses as various opponents traded shots.

Seniors do dodge a lot of bullets. Like waiting too long before surrendering our driver's licenses. By refusing to visit the dentist or doctor when we should. By over or under eating or downing too much fast food. We too often lop 20 or 30 years off our true age by taking unnecessary risks. My own son has ordered his mother to keep his father (me) from climbing stepladders (or other similar tasks) -- with some success.

We seniors dodged bullets years ago by ignoring our savings with too much reliance on Social Security and Medicare not to mention pensions that may or may not outlive us. We also took shortcuts with our medications when we put some aside for a rainy day. Or carelessly left them unhidden to tempt pesky, overly adventuresome grandkids.

But we say this could never happen to us. And I hope you are right. However, it is one thing to dodge bullets and quite another to keep out of harms way. Bulletproofing ourselves from unforeseen attacks could help reduce some of those pesky senior moments that really need not happen.

If your senior moment is tempting you but you still give in, maybe this in part will help you understand why.