Admin hat on:
The subject of this thread is French protests over raising the retirement age. Not J6, BLM, etc. Those are derails and need to stop.
Step into the thread and first post I see is about January 6th. Then I was wondering if I clicked the right post.
I'm assuming Elixir responded before seeing the warning. I've done it myself.
Response deleted, moved to new thread and apologies.
I worked (somewhat happily) until 69 y/o, and a little beyond. I’d probably still be working if I had not been revulsed by having to serve Trump’s CBP and ICE.
French need to man up and face the 21st century. A little hard work and long hours won't kill you.
I will say that not everyone can work that late in life. I'm middle aged at this point, and I will recognize that I seek to work meaningfully until I cannot, or others will not let me, whichever comes first.
Still, when it comes to actually doing that work, I do it slowly, methodically, and iteratively. It will be done once badly, then not so badly, and repeated until I reach a level of proficiency that is approaching elegance, but or which indicates a straight path clear to it from where I'm at.
Usually there are 3-4 things I'm doing at any one time around this model of behavior.
At some point, I expect my mind will go, and because I was young when I saw my grandad get Alzheimer's disease, I've spent the whole time from then until now applying "reality checks" and remembering to ask myself if I could be in a last memory making life hard for my loved ones and treating others badly. It's... I'll admit it has its own cost, but I would rather pay this cost than be an asshole to my loved ones, incapable of accepting it's my reality because I had lived a life expecting it would never be.
There are a few "bad ends" I posture against in similar ways.
When it happens, I need a legal structure to exist that provides places for people who are starting to fall apart and become unable to pursue their professions, and I accept that it happens to many far earlier than "retirement age" in many parts of the world.
Statistically, I think I'm due to gain 5 years on most folks as far as cancer goes, and my blood pressure is great, and always has been.
Still, I'm going to get a lot more physically weak over the years, and if something age- or decay-related happens to my mind I'm SOL there.
It's a scary prospect in a lot of ways to lose something I've been working on building up for so long, though, and being in a society that does not accept what I have done as "enough".