The man in the mirror

No, I'm not talking about the Michael Jackson song (although that might bear reflection -- pun intended) but about the question my niece asked: "When did you get old enough for Medicare?"

Short and simple answer: May 1, 2015. My birthday is May 19, but Medicare kicks in at the beginning of the month you turn 65.

When did I get old enough for Medicare?

Yesterday I got a CD from Lee with a dozen or so songs that are all about 50 years old. How is it possible that songs I listened to new in my teens are half a century old?

When did I get old enough for Medicare?

At the gut level, I think of Medicare as something that my grandparents needed. My brain knows that my mother has had it now for 21 years, and we are all grateful that she has the protection. After my father died a few years ago, she told me that had it not been for the help they had from Medicare, she thought she would have died, too, from the additional stress they would have suffered. But somehow Medicare was made for much older people.

Tom has had Medicare for a while now. When did he become old enough for Medicare?

When I see a photograph of myself, I am always a bit startled. I don't see that man in the mirror every morning. Why not? Not that I see in the mirror the guy I was when I was 30 or even 40. But ... is that man in the photograph me? 

That guy looks like he may be old enough for Medicare soon.

The guy looking at the mirror, the guy looking at the photograph, however, is not feeling anywhere near old enough for Medicare. He is grateful that he will have the security that comes with it, of course. But inside I am only 40 or so. 

Or so it seems this morning. Whatever. 

When we were in Spain back in 1978, the nuns in Granada told us a story about an old nun who had decided to leave. She was in her 70s and had been in the monastery since she was a teenager. When a priest came to talk to her about it, he told her she was being foolish. 


"At your age, why would you leave? Why now, when you have so little time left?" he said bluntly, trying to shock her into being sensible.

She looked at him and said, "A day is a day."

The nuns laughed and said, "Of course, she was crazy."

I think not.

A day is a day.