Early and Late

Don't you find it interesting that when one in the early and late stages in life, one has to depend on others to do daily and normal things?I recently read The Curious Case of Benjamin Button; granted it was on my iTouch, so I don't know whether its the abridged version or not, but, i know the basic story. And it really occurred to me how that will never happen in real life, where a baby is born, looking like a 76-year-old man,( because I mean, how can any woman puch that out) technically its pretty much relevant. New-born baby, is kind of like a very old man, and by making it such that in the book, the infant looks like a elderly person, the author;s intent seems true.
I've just realised how certain concepts about things in life are portrayed very well in this book. When the main character gets married, his real age is about 20 or so, btu he looks around 50. And he gets married to this young girl of around 20 or so, who for some reason, prefers older men of 50 to younger men. Therefore, at that time of marriage, both love each other for different reasons, but all the same, both love each other. Unfortunately, over time, instead of him growing even older, he starts looking younger. And she, like a normal woman, grows older, her beauty fading. Like any normal woman, her pride and ego would be affected, especially when it seems that her husband looks better than her and worse still, younger than her. This obviously affects their marriage because where he had once thought her beautiful, now did not think so. He preferred going to parties and dancing and talking to other young wives, whereas she preferred to stay at home. People change over time and want different things, as they grow(whether it is they grow younger or older), and this happens in real life and real marriages too. Its just made more obvious here, where the differences are just more clear.

I've deviated from my main point here. My point simply being, isn't it sad, that at the end and the beginning of our lives, we are basically helpless and vulnerable human beings? That we have to depend on others? I noted this quite clearly when at the so called "end" of his life, when his real age was nearing 70-plus, he was physically like an infant, or a toddler, depending wholly on his Nurse and his onw thoughts grew less complicated as he grew older or physically, younger. Maybe its just meant to be, this thing of dependence of others, even when we're old, to prove a point that we should HAVE children, and we should raise them well, such that they DO take care of us when we're old.
That was how it was in the past, that was the way of thinking. As we had moved foward into the future, some of these morals and ways of thinking have been discarded, but I think that they're still very much relevant. Especially in aging societies like Singapore and Europe, where many of the elderly live alone, either because they had no children, or their children are so selfish and unfilial as to abandon them in their times of need. Which begs the question: were those selfish children brought up to honour and care for their old ones?
Isn't it ironinc that the societies that once did honour their elderly, the Asian and the European,( images of large Italian families with the matriach or patriach at the head of the table, and similar images of Chinese and other Asian families with the elderly present at tables come to mind now) ar ethe very societies that have climbing elderly suicide rates? Bear in mind, that my info may not be 100% accurate so take everything I write with a pinch of salt.


I've run out of steam, and now I feel sad for the state of the world. That's all I guess.

shini