Maroc - NEWSDAY.CO.TT - A la Une - 27/Dec 03:44

The late winter of our lives

THE EDITOR: Now that I am in the late winter of my life, I am expected to sit and watch the world pass me by. But I refuse to do this involuntary decay into dusty death. Instead, I feel very much alive, indulging my wonted aesthetic sense, allowing the thorny bougainvilleas to grow wild to full bloom feeding that sense, babying the petunias so that they can smile back at me in their myriad colour, and mowing the lawn to a golfer’s dream, as much an avid golfer as my son-in-law is. And I would even add to the tinkle of Christmas lights on the ashokas and some discreet painting where needed, which would be much to the chagrin of my daughter far away, who would recoil in horror at the idea of Daddy daring to climb ladders at this age. And the love of my life of 50 years and more, not as wholesome as before, also indulging her accustomed sense of perfection rearranging the cushions and the poinsettias, which had become my task with our lady helper of four years having to go away suddenly, and muttering to herself as she shuffled around about how her cakes and pastries were the toast of all her visitors at Christmas time. We both had created our own little world for our ageing selves and were very much alive in it, refusing to lay ourselves down and die as so many others like us have, even as the all-pervasive sense of fear screams around us like the Venezuelans in mortal fear of what Trump would do next. Or here in this country where all the talk is about how we are in the middle of this oncoming war and the likely consequence of such. And many in this country indulging the typical Trini knack to splurge at Christmas, worrying about where the next buck would be coming from having been put on the breadline, or how he would replace his grocery money snatched away from him by a ticket from an over-zealous traffic warden. And not only the ordinary guy. For the more fortunate there is the dreaded prospect of kidnap for ransom, as in a recent case, and threat of home invasion, as with an elderly couple in Santa Cruz, or being robbed or even killed. Not to mention, of course, Moody’s lowering TT’s outlook to negative and the impact on investors, inter alia. But even with all this we have created our own little world here at home and are savouring it as if there were no tomorrow, and wish the same for all in this festive season. DR ERROL N BENJAMIN via e-mail The post The late winter of our lives appeared first on Trinidad and Tobago Newsday.