DO NOT SUFFER FOOLS

People fight the aging process too much, in general. When people age, they slow down physically but for most of us, it only matches the slowing down of other aspects of our physical and psychological lives. I may be perceived as giving up on life when I prefer my own company to that of many of the people I meet. If that is arrogance, I plead guilty. Since I am more senior than many of my senior friends, I no longer want to waste my life on fools, ignorant people, and wasters of other people's time. It is not difficult to recognize a fool...they rarely make logical sense and can be highly opinionated in ways that are blatantly without logic, facts or sense. Ignorant people are easily spotted as they are often expounding on the worthlessness of books they haven't read, cling to the words as if they are truth from people who have been shown quite convincingly that they have been lying. Narcissists and others who are self-involved and want to talk but never listen , never change an opinion, and never admit an error...though it is quite likely it has been proven to them to be one.

It is bad enough that some of our friends are becoming intellectually challenged and we miss what the aging process has taken away from them. However, some people were boring when they were young and old age does not make them scintillating companions.

Painfully, some people can not be driven away by tactful distancing. Unless you make it really clear to them that you do not find enough worthwhile in their company to spend time with them, you will be doomed to have to put up with their presence intruding into what little time you think you have left of your life. Friends may require you to watch TV that makes your teeth grind with the words like so many fingernails on a blackboard. Since I am careful about the people with whom I must share room space, I do not have many people around me whom I don't enjoy. However, the TV media has a way of putting these people on (attempting to give the viewers a balanced perspective I assume) media news and political shows.

For that reason, you have to develop coping skills for being with people with whom you have significant differences in the areas considered socially taboo,such as politics, religion, how to raise children and spoil grandchildren, you are doomed to suffer their chatter. During these times, I have developed the art of living in my own head while appearing to be interested in them...courtesy of having the ability to have two tracks running simultaneously in my head, or verbally sparring with them.

The trick to successfully engaging in a discussion with them on those taboo subjects which make this game more tempting is that it has to be done with some specific techniques, one of which is to appear to agree with them while, in fact, tearing down all their belief foundations. When people finally catch on to what has happened when they hear themselves defending the opposite position from which they started, it is confusing to them, embarrassing, and does not gain you friendships for having been right to their wrong. While I like to think that I believe in living and letting others live as they choose, I don't always find myself able to follow that in face of flagrant idiocy. I don't slip often but suffering fools is not among my accomplishments. Since I select my friends carefully, I'm quite able to handle myself in most settings, only to lose it when I am somewhere in which I choose not to be rude because I care enough about other people's feelings to tell myself I MUST suffer through.