I posted a piece earlier today about how I had taken Red to the pasture, gotten a telephone call and forgotten him for more than an hour. When I came out, he was right where I left  him, dutiful creature that he is. It was a fun thing, and people on Facebook had an appropriately good time with it, although I did notice one message seemed to chuckle: “a senior moment: We get more and more of them as we get older.” When I saw this message I knew I had to write about old people talk, because I learned the hard way that not only is it not funny and rarely true, it can kill you as quickly as heart disease.

In America, older people are the invisible people, they have largely vanished from movies, music, TV shows, magazines and popular culture. Marketers don’t care about us because we don’t have decades of buying life ahead of us.  Although we learn all the time not to denigrate people – African-Americans, women, Native-Americans, Muslims, Jews – older people don’t have to fight being denigrated, they do it to themselves all of the time.

Several years ago, I started struggling walking up hills, it got so bad I could barely walk 20 years down the road. I can’t tell you how many people – myself included – said things like “well, at our age,” “we’re not getting any younger,” “of course, as we get older.” I was convinced my breathing troubles were caused by my age- I was just getting older, I told Maria, and she believed it –  until an exasperated cardiologist looked at my X-rays and practically shouted at me,”what’s wrong with you? You’re not too old to walk!”

Of course he was right. My leaving Red in the pasture was not a “senior moment” either, I have been forgetful all of my life, often in much worse ways than this morning. I rarely forget things I need to do, I do not have “more and more” of these moments all the time.Nor do most of the people I know who are my age, they function well and efficiently.

Anyone at any age can get distracted by a phone call, it happens to Maria, my daughter, and everyone that I know. Older people are not necessarily all doddering fools, every stumble is not a sign of decay, and why would one chuckle about it if it were? We can, I am happy to report, work hard and successfully, write on blogs every day, answer scores of e-mails, take care of dogs and donkeys, remember our chores and medicines, have sex, write books, take photos and meet our commitments. Even remember our dogs in the pasture 99 times out of 100. Every single day. On top of that, we can walk four or five miles a day if we want and keep track of a dozen different medicines.

It is degrading to attribute life’s natural and normal moments to aging and senility. Dementia and senility are real, but they are diseases, and I don’t happen to have either one of them. Most older people do not. I am doing many more things in many more ways than ever before in my life, and I want to say to those of you who are beginning to get older – and to those of you who are younger as well – do not engage in old people talk, at least not to me. It is cruel and demeaning, and I have to say, it can also kill you as quick as a heart attack.