Old people have never been so powerful or, now, so vulnerable.
The Longest Lives
A special issue listening to the very old.
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We live in a kind of gerontocracy that feels both accidental and deeply entrenched.
But this virusstrikes the oldwith the most consistent lethality.
Almost 60 percent of those who have died from COVID-19 in the U.S. were 75 or older.
Almost 80 percent were age 65 or older.
(Only 7 percent of deaths have been under 54.)
That means most of us have nothing to worry about!
And young conservatives, of course, just say the quiet part loud.
But thats really just a way of asking the cosmos, Im not so old, am I?
Its coming for you, or you for it.
Even the men and women I spoke to who suffered from serious infirmities were bracingly, intensely there.
But her finger moved to her mouth youll have to help me get it out of here.
And a couple of men in their 90s were frank about living in the first stages of dementia.
Come see me anyway, one said.
Sometimes Im surprised by what I know.
More than that, they were interested.
In my condition, you learn that there is no such thing as a truly level sidewalk.
Everything is either uphill going or uphill coming back.
They have learned to struggle uphill.
Some of them have had ten, 15, even 20 years to master being old.
The answer: Everyone.
Many of the singers were not yet born whenFolliesopened.
But Im Still Here isnt really an assertion of victory, except for the victory of continued existence.
As Sondheim himself once wrote, its about survival and, at best, eventual optimism.
Its toughness is leavened by droll shock at having made it through the brutal vicissitudes of luck and history.
If not now, when?
But believe me, its no picnic.
