The Ten Year Challenge

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You would have to be living under a rock not to have heard about the “Ten-year Challenge” or like me, learned late in the game of the latest social media meme.

What is a meme you ask? Again, I am learning after the brou ha, ha. Merriam/Webster.com defines a meme as an element of a culture or system of behavior passed from one individual to another by non-genetic means, especially imitation. In other words, the latest craze or fad proliferated by social media.

Richard Dawkins, the British Scientist, first used the word in 1976 as “a unit of cultural transmission” to describe behavior. He was not talking about the flu.

The latest meme, the Ten Year Challenge, started on Facebook as a mindless past time; the craze took to Instagram and everyone jumped on the wagon, environmentalists reviewing how the past ten years have aged nature, and intellectual types, like John Dickerson of CBS News, talked about the benefits of aging on character, mind, and moral responsibility, although there was no mention of the President.

While celebrities are flaunting their good looks and comparing themselves in their twenties to their thirties, I wonder how I will look in ten years when eighty. Will I recognize myself?

The fun however, was short lived as suspicion arose that Facebook’s real purpose was for facial recognition, then lead to rumors they are colluding with Russia, and hint of a Muller investigation. The President did not comment on Twitter nor post before and after pictures on Instagram, while Sara Huckabee rolled her eyes and quietly said the rumors are unfounded and fake news.*

Investigations aside, facial recognition is becoming a scary issue for me. Life expectancy for a person my age is eighty and increases with age. My mom is ninety-five and still alive, factor in modern medicine and there is a good chance I will live another twenty-five years. Will I recognize myself?

Probably not, so I am working on a ten-year plan for Elderhood, you know like childhood when you wore diapers and had temper tantrums when told what to do.

The solution, I am going to lean in and embrace Elderhood; lose five lbs, travel more and write everyday.

 . . . . just saying.com

 

*Really fake news and not true, I made it up, unless proven otherwise

 

14 thoughts on “The Ten Year Challenge”

      • Heavens, I just caught your reply, Claudia! I’m currently serving a small church 20 miles away until mid-June, so I hope I’m leading by example…and it’s not uncommon for the joys and challenges of getting older to come up in a sermon. So between that and my blog, I’ve got nothing on the back burner. I look forward to hearing about your “other projects”!

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  6. Wow, I must be really out of the loop or just living under a rock! Is there really such a thing as the Ten Year Challenge? Looking ahead 10 years is surely not as exciting at 72 as it was at 22 or 32-in fact it’s not exciting at all! As for facial recognition, I had to chuckle. I just had cataract surgery (a sign of elderhood for sure). The results have been all good except for looking in the mirror. What a shock that all those wrinkles appeared overnight!

    PS: You look fabulous

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