The ravages of age can leave even the most powerful man helpless and undignified.
KUALA LUMPUR (The Star), March 5, 2008:
DURING the Chinese New Year period, I spent some time with a church group in a nursing home in Kuala Lumpur to cheer up the old folks. I cannot say to what extent I had succeeded in spreading the New Year joy, but I found the visit a humbling experience.
We were a small group with mixed talents, except for yours truly. We prepared a variety of delicious food to share with the old folks. We sang, danced and played music to entertain some 30 of them, most of whom were into their 70s.
As the party went on, several inmates joined in the dancing enthusiastically but most slipped into their own world, showing little interest in what was going on. A few were in wheelchairs and needed to be spoonfed.
No longer floating like a butterfly: The once-seemingly invincible Muhammad Ali is now incapacitated by Parkinson’s. They looked so distanced from us and so disengaged that the images still linger on in my mind even though the visit was some weeks ago. It left me with the sad realisation of the loss of many things when one gets to that age.
Not many of us give a thought as to how we will be when we become old, sick and feeble. It’s not a pleasant thing to think about, especially when we are busy pursuing a career or raising a family.
When we have the whole world at our feet, when we are at the peak of our strength, the thought of old age is furthest from our minds. Growing old, just like dying, belongs to someone else. But alas, it will happen to us. It is part of life; it is inescapable.
Thus, the richest and most powerful man today can become an invalid in a wheelchair, unable to perform even the most basic functions like feeding and cleaning up. It is a real blessing if we can be hale and hearty right into old age. But for some, the sunset years can be very undignified.
People of my generation are great admirers of the legendary Muhammad Ali who reigned supreme in the boxing ring in the 1970s. The three-time world heavyweight champion who turned the bloody sport around is now a bloated, trembling and stammering old man ravaged by Parkinson’s disease.
The last time I saw him on TV, he was accompanied by his caregivers and could hardly utter a complete sentence. What has happened to the deadly but graceful Ali who invented the “float like a butterfly and sting like a bee” boxing style and won adoration from the world over?
Old age plus the crippling Parkinson’s disease have robbed him not only of his dignity but also his strength and vitality.
Great world leaders like President Ronald Reagan and Chairman Mao Zedong who were heroes in their prime, wielding immense power over the fate of lesser mortals, were pathetic sights in their twilight years.
Reagan, the movie star-turned-president, was struck with Alzheimer’s disease and could not even receive visitors long before his death. It must have been a very distressful sight compared with his younger days when he was the US President or the movie cowboy.
Chairman Mao who turned China upside down to establish his brand of new China, looked helpless and pathetic when he was seen on TV receiving our Prime Minister Tun Abdul Razak in 1974. Did he still have a grip on his country during the most destructive years of the Cultural Revolution? One wonders.
And if you are still not convinced, take a look at “superman” Christopher Reeve who was paralysed from the neck down following an accident and had to spend the last lap of his life in a wheelchair.
People who still entertain the delusion of being invincible should pay a visit to the old folks home for a reality check. It will do them a lot of good as we will all come to a point in life when we have no say, no strength and no ability to get around without help.
And so what’s the message? A wise man once said: “When one is on the way up, be nice to fellow travellers because he is bound to meet them again on the way down.”
He put it nicely in a nutshell.
Copyright © 1995-2008 Star Publications (Malaysia) Bhd
