As we get older. By Essie Scott

As we get older. By Essie Scott

When humans get older things change, a lot. Did you ever wonder why grandma and grandpa walk around with one leg up on their pants and one leg down? It’s because sometimes they can be too sore to fix their pant legs. And some of them have to take pills to block the pain from their knees from going to their brain and slowing them down even more. Have you ever looked into an old person’s face and you can tell they were very nice looking when they were younger, but their eyes are just dark and they look weary. That person is fighting physical pain. Arthritis, osteoarthritis and weak bones take a toll on your countenance. Some older people don’t have much company anymore so they really don’t care about looking all dolled up for the day. They are more concerned about tripping over the carpet or the rug in the middle of the floor than whether or not their pant legs match. And sometimes their pants are a little crooked, the seams don’t match their body. Sometimes that happens because after years of dieting or taking pills that change their metabolic system, their bodies change and don’t line up like they used to. Maybe they’re not concerned as to whether or not the seam in the back of their pants lines up with their rear-end crack. Some of them have a certain smell what they call “the old people smell,” because their joints are slowly rotting away and it’s hard for them to get in and out of the shower or the bathtub. A lot of old people from back in, I would say the 50s in the 60s, they do what we call sink bathing. I have done it before as a 68-year-old woman and a marine from way back when and I can tell you, I can bathe myself from the top of my head to the bottom of my feet in a small sink. My favorite is taking baths though, I do take baths because you can put tea in it, you can put salt in your water, you can add some AVON to it or your favorite bubble bath and you just sit there thank God for the bath and enjoy it. Most of the time I put a couple drops of what I call ‘anointing oil’ (a mixture of frankincense and myrrh) into my bath, and I call it my “Jesus bath”, where I sit, enjoy it, get healed, and pray for the world.

There was a lady on a show on TV one time I can’t remember the show. I think it was Sex in the City” and she was telling the audience that she was a sink bather but she said she stays clean. Of course the audience gasped and some laughed because these new generations think that showering is a part of being a human. I am very sure that Moses and the Israelites didn’t bathe under a water shower coming from one mountain to the other. Here in the west, we are slowly losing our old ways. I was talking to a younger lady once and I was telling her about bathing in the sink and she actually said “Ooh that’s nasty. I don’t think I would want to smell myself or get my nose full of funk.” I think she sort of told on herself by saying that because I wasn’t calling her funky. I was literally just trying to hold a conversation about bathing in the sink the bathroom sink, of course, since we were on that topic. I can literally wash my hair, my neck, on down to my ankles and lift my feet up one at a time and placed them in that water in the sink and carefully wash them and of course, you need to change the water once in a while. Some older people may not be able to lift their legs up to get their feet in the sink, but they can place a towel on the toilet and sit down and watch it that way.

When you see pictures online about older people from other countries or even older people from the United States, they may be a little discolored and wrinkled, but that doesn’t mean they necessarily smell. Some of them probably smell better than some of our young people today. Not to mention these horrible sents and fragrances that these companies are coming out with today. I remember about 15 years ago when one of these companies came out with a spray for boys and men, and boys in high school were using it and stinking up the whole school. It wasn’t a very good smell at all. I guess the gym teachers were telling these boys to use the spray it was horrible. Girls kept saying “Please stop wearing that spray!”

I told a person one time to take an Epsom salt bath and they told me “What is Epsom salt!” I literally had to explain it to them that it’s good for your skin, your bones and it calms you as you take a bath. We take man-made medicine when all we might need is some old fashioned Alka-Seltzer, some Tums, an aspirin or maybe some good old-fashioned molasses or sassafras off of our shelves. You can go outside in your own yard and find nettle, dandelions to make tea and jellies with, and there’s a myriad of things in your yard that you can actually use that even the Indians used and people of old. I am very sure that Samson didn’t take an aspirin every time his braids were too tight.

Depending on man-made creations causes you to lose control and man gains that control and uses you like a puppet. When you get your medicine delivered to you in the mail or what have you, how do you know what’s really in that medicine? You may not JUST be getting diabetic medication or medication for your heart. When in reality it just could be something that they couldn’t make you take the jab for. People are concerned about nanotechnology today.

So the next time you see an elderly person having a hard time, put yourself in their place, which will happen eventually. Offer to help them, and wish them well. And young people, please stop laughing at them because that could be you in the next 50 or 60 years. Life is a cycle. It just goes on and on and on, until JESUS comes back. You have to realize that they were once young and handsome and beautiful too. Now that they’re older, their hair may be thinning, or they may have gone bald. Their bodies may be chunkier than they were when they were younger. Wrinkles may have taken over their face, they’re under arms, their thighs. They lost that heavenly glow that they had on their faces when they were younger. But all in all, they enjoyed it while they could, and I’m very sure that they are thanking God for helping them through all of those years, and so should you.

Essie