Week Fifteen Post Two

While reading chapter fifteen I was most interested on the section on holding on to one’s self. Older people consider their personalities and attitudes to have remained quite stable over their life span, even as they recognize the physical changes of their bodies. Older persons who are the victims of a crime feel that their sense of self-efficiency is threatened, especially if they are African American. The tendency to cling to familiar places and possessions may be problematic if it leads to compulsive hoarding. This urge to accumulate old papers, pieces of furniture, and mementos becomes stronger with age, and family members often complain that an elderly person foolishly saves things that take up space and become a fire hazard.  I found this section most interesting because I’ve actually had first hand experience with a hoarder. My grandmother was a huge pack rat and hoarder and she saved everything. Well when she decided to sell her house, we had to go through each and every thing she had packed up in the numerous rooms she had. It took weeks, so many hours of our time was invested in trashing the useless items and saving the valuable. The need to protect oneself explains why many of the old strive to maintain the cultural and religious values of their youth. For intense when, grandparents may painstakingly teach a grandchild language that is rarely used in their current community or encourage the child to repeat rituals or prayers, they themselves learned almost a century ago. This is also true about my grandma. Although the facts about  elders seem to stereotype them, they are pretty accurate.