“Dez a whole lotta occupyin’ goin’ on out dere”!. (You have “hear” that statement as voiced by the cartoon character FogHorn Leghorn, who most folks recognize as having been overtly modeled after some quintessential U.S. Senator-type hailing from south of the Mason Dixon line.)
Hey, I’ve had my fill of Occupy Wall Street, Occupy Seattle, Occupy “Where-ever”. By the way, how come there’s no Occupy Ballard, or Occupy Sultan, or Occupy Fife gaining traction? Although, in the case of Ballard, I can understand. Folks there are quick to point out, “We don’t really need something else here on our streets that smells as bad as Lutefisk”. (That would be rotted herring for the uninitiated.) But PLEASE… DO let me know when “Occupy Kaanapali Beach, Maui” kicks off… and I’ll sign right on for that brand of protest movement.
Anyway, speaking of “occupying”, it was interesting for me to read this week that…
“According to the U.S. Bureau of the Census, slightly over 5 percent of the 65+ population occupy nursing homes, congregate care, assisted living, and board-and-care homes, and about 4.2 percent are in nursing homes at any given time. The rate of nursing home use increases with age from 1.4 percent of the young-old to 24.5 percent of the oldest-old. Almost 50 percent of those 95 and older live in nursing homes”.
(Note: That’s a 10-fold increase in the chances of not living in your current home as age ratchets up.)
What I wonder about is this… What if people took a little time to just sit down and think about where they see themselves living at the various stages of their aging journey… say, at 55, at 65, at 75, at 85, at 95+ years old? Yes, I know, everyone is going to say, “Well son, this home I’m in right now is the one they’re going to carry me out of to my grave”. But that just isn’t the case for lots of people. That’s not dealing with life’s realities of growing old… just like the Occupy Wall Street crowd isn’t dealing with life’s realities of growing up.
Someone much wiser than I once said, “Here’s how anything of value has gotten accomplished by man throughout the course of history… Vision, followed by Intention followed by Means. Formula VIM, if you will. What’s your vision for the places and spaces that you see yourself occupying that would serve to enhance your leading a life of fruitfulness and contribution all the way to the end? That’s what I truly enjoy helping folks design towards when they are weighing their housing options in The GoodLife 3.0.
