Driving
Driving is situated in several instances as, at least in America, the definitive symbol of the last thread of independence for aging seniors. As people age, they naturally lose the ability or capacity to do many things that came second nature when younger and many of those activities are given up with this recognition of inevitability. But the independence that is offered in connection with the earned right that inherent in the passage of the latest driver license exam serves to convince many people that they can still manage this particular act at a high enough degree of competence to retain that right. Unfortunately, for too many seniors it takes an accident to finally convince them that just because they can doesn’t mean they should.
Bones
Medical research has served to position the bones in the human body as the symbolic warning siren of potential death for some people. A loss of bone density has been recognized as an effective diagnostic predictor of the potential for dying from atherosclerotic disease.
1945
The year 1945 has come to symbolize what was truly an epochal transformation of the human condition rarely recognized and appreciated even less. Literally from the beginning of civilization up to the 20th century, the death of a loved one overwhelmingly took place inside or within proximity their home. It was not until almost the mid-way point of the 20th century that one became statistically more likely to die somewhere other than inside their home. Since multiple causes contributed to reaching this turning point, the change does not represent any particular aspect of historical progress, but simply speaks to how history underwent a genuinely remarkable pivot with almost very little public realization.
Nursing Homes
Nursing homes are the symbolic incarnation of not the fear of death itself, but the fear of living while still facing the fear of death. The blame for this is laid less on horror stories of the exceptionally awful conditions and more on the ideological concept of the idea itself. Constructed upon the foundation of prisons rather than replicating a patient’s actual home, the bulk of nursing homes in America instill a fear of living too long before death instead of alleviating that anxiety.
The Author’s Father
The author desperately wants to present the retirement of his own father a universal representative exercising autonomy over one’s life in their twilight years. He forwards the story of his father an example of how one “may not control life’s circumstances” but one can be in control of what they do with those circumstances. Which would be fine except the example he’s putting forth is retired surgeon taking control over circumstances that include being elected district governor of the Rotary Club. Ultimately, he is successful in transforming his father into a symbol, but of the privileges reserved for the elite rather than an Everyman with equal access to such uncontrollable “circumstances.”
