Age Discrimination

Everyone always talks about old people being "senile," or "incapable," or "poor thing, he doesn't know what he's doing." 

Truth of the matter is we all discriminate against the elderly.  It's possibly the scariest discrimination because we're all headed in that direction.

The other day I was taking an aqua aerobics class at the Boston University Fitrec Center and this old man was diving.  Apparently, he used to be some sort of competitive diver.  His stomach sags over and he looks brittle and old. I would guess anywhere between 75 and 85 years old.  (A little scary to watch someone dive at that age.)  Nonetheless, the man wants to dive.  BU allows him to dive because of his background.  The old man has bonded with the diving team and he practices with them occasionally. 

The other day when I was in my class we looked up and saw him on the high dive.  This is a little scarier.  We were all excited.  Was he going to do it? Would he survive? 

No. His moment of glory was stolen.  The 23 year old manager stripped him of his glory. Through the glass windows we watched this young man in a button down and khakis tell the old man in swim trunks with gray hair spouting out from his head that "no, he could not dive."

The old man came down the stairs saying goodbye to the spark of youth he almost managed to grab hold.  There was a scurry and other managers were talking to him. Though I couldn't hear what was said, the old man just kept walking back and forth between the two pool rooms.  He circled around. "Poor thing, he doesn't know what to do." It's not that old people don't know what they are doing, but that they don't know what to do in this world that used to be in their hands. They've been told their time is done, but they are still here.  In my opinion, so what if he died?  He wanted to dive. Let the man dive! So what he survived? The price he paid was the loss of free will. When I get older and some young chick tells me "no" or that "that wouldn't really be in your best interest" I would say "excuse me sweetheart, but how the hell would you know?"

Being young is also subject to discrimination. People don't take you seriously, don't think you are actually 21, or they tell you that you don't have the experience to be an assistant.

BUT it's not so bad when you know you will grow out of that discrimination. We are all growing older and growing into a new type of discrimination. So again, age discrimination is the scariest because there is no escape.