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One of my favorite scenes from the 1975 comedy, Monty Python and The Holy Grail, depicted a medieval village during a terrible plague. A man is leading a cart down the narrow street loaded with corpses and yelling out "bring out your dead".
Out of a doorway comes a young fellow with an elderly man slung over his shoulder. "Here's one!" he yells and offers up the standard payment. The old man raises his head and objects "I'm not dead", which stalls the transaction and leads to a funny exchange between the undertaker and the younger man. "I'm getting better", the old man offers. But the young guy is determined to unload the old fellow as hopeless.
If you're over fifty and especially if you're over fifty and looking for a new job, you may feel like the old man in the Monty Python movie. No matter what you have done or can still do, it feels like someone is determined to toss you on the undertaker's wagon.
Don't buy it. If you're still breathing, raise your head and proclaim that you're not dead. Each of those wrinkles represents a tough problem solved. Each gray hair, a stressful situation endured.
Don't get discouraged. Use your experience to overcome. If you're worried because others can text, tweet and chacha faster than you, hire a fourteen year old kid to teach you how. It will cost you a couple bucks for a burger and Coke and probably take about ten minutes to learn. And it will give you a slight advantage over most of your peers.
While you have the kid's attention, take an extra five minutes to teach them to have a firm handshake and look people in the eye when conversing. It will give them a slight advantage over most of their peers.
You have solved problems, resolved conflicts and devised solutions without the benefit of the internet. You can find your way to the grocery store without a GPS. You can calculate percentages in your head without the benefit of a laptop. You know how to improvise.
So stay sharp, keep learning and keep going up stairs two at a time. The world needs you to stay engaged. Never give up. You're not dead yet.
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» left by Ken McCreless from Event Horizon (145 days 13 hours ago.)
Awesome stuff, Steve. Those of us that can remember getting up to change the channel to one of the other 3 available, or to tweak the rabbit ears and adjust the aluminum foil for a better picture have weathered a lot!
That's funny Ken. Rabbit ears and foil. We were indeed overcomers.
Three years ago I had a falling out with the cable company and made them take it out. We survived on ABC and Univision for 18 months. Finally fiber-optic came to our neighborhood and we got all 1,951 channels. My family started speaking to me again but there's still nothing to watch on TV. Steve
Very encouraging article. I would like to print a copy and frame it as a reminder that no matter how tough things get...I'm not dead yet! Thanks for sharing.
We can never get too old to learn and adapt. I'm 58 years old and I think I know more about the computer than my adult children. And when it comes to being tossed on the undertaker's wagon, I even jumped that hurdle; I retired from my career of 32 years and joined the undertaker, now working in a funeral home. - I'm not dead yet!
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