About old people and old women

By the way, in medieval Japan there was no cult of youth - it was replaced by the cult of old age. No one said that being young is better than the old one. The young is looking for himself, he is always in the escape. And the old man has already proved everything to everyone, everyone respects him, relatives care about him. What else to wish for? In that Japan, a man voluntarily went away when he was performed fifty years old, and was engaged in what the soul lies to. People have read, wrote, painted, played, played, played, talked with friends. In general, they enjoyed life.

Kaibara Ekiken wrote the book “Teaching in Joy”, when he was 81 years old, when his skin had long been covered with senile ripples. This happened in the eighteenth century. In this book, he taught to find a delight at sunset of life. Create good, read good books, admire nature, drink occasionally ... All these joys do not require wealth and are available at any age. Unless, of course, in your youth you followed your body and did not indulge in excesses.

The prose of Kaibara is nourished by poetry. “ Wine is a wonderful gift of the sky. If you drink a little, your heart will be revealed, sorrows will leave, the spirit will inflate, vigor will come, the blood will run more fun. You will be able to share the fun with people, and you will be a big help in joy . ” Or here's about reading: “ If you are lucky enough to collect many books on a shelf, then how can you call you poor? After all, you have a real wealth that you do not exchange for a basket with gold. Talking with a kind friend about the path, together with it to rejoice at the moon and flowers, stay in glorified places and wonderful limits, enjoy unsurpassed views there - this is called pure happiness. If you managed to get it - know the vastness of this happiness, which does not happen to be a joint rich . ”

Kaibara Ekiken was a happy person. At the end of his life, he signed his books and letters as follows: " Joyful old man ." He went a long way, but did not seek to live longer than he was supposed to.

***

Alexander Alexandrovich Konyus was a doctor of economic sciences, fought in the First World War, earned the St. George Cross, received a through wound, survived the civil war, Stalin's purges and the Second World War, understood the price of things and people, went into tearing. From his years he had puffed his feet on his feet, and for their convenience he made slots on the boots. In such boots, he invited ladies to the conservatory and was successful with them.

Our acquaintance with A.A. It happened in the Zosimov Desert near Moscow. He was at that moment in a pond surrounded by a forest, and I was on its shore. A.A. He stood waist -deep in water for an endlessly long time. It seemed to me that he simply would not dare to rush into cold water. On my caustic questions about the reasons for such indecision A.A. Only confusedly grunted. Finally, he was tired of my stupid remarks and he said: “When you stand in one place for a long time, the fish get used to you and begin to touch your legs. It is a little tickling and very nice. ” A.A. It was 76 years old at this time.

I was no longer lucky to meet a second person who, at such a respectable age, would be interesting to play with pond fish. Even in the last years of his life, A.A. He did not seem old - all his reactions remained young, his eyes shone with young -winged blue. The memory already used to let him down, but until the final days he, going out into the street, did not forget to put chocolate sweets in his pocket - he treated them with them in Moscow streets. And what can we say about the times of earlier ... "I evaluated a woman in my youth like this: I agree from her to become syphilis or not."

***

In the mid-1980s of the last century, I found myself in Paris. In the Impressionists Museum, an elderly laminel with a wand caught my eye. It was evident that movement in space was given to her with difficulty. I went to another museum and ran into it again. I thought: these tourist fools are wandering along the same guide, along the same route. But then my path lay in the GIME museum - a special and deserted place, where eastern antiquities were collected. Imagine my amazement when I noticed a chromium -short and there. Seeing me, she rushed to the column with all the agility, which was allowed by her disability. There was a cold war; The intelligence services of all countries rejoiced at each other's existence, escalated passions, inflated cheeks and budget. In this red -hot atmosphere, it did not seem idiocy to appoint an outdoor old woman with shortness of breath and a wand into external surveillance agents.

***

An old woman lives in our yard. She shuffles along the asphalt, lowering her eyes to the share, and so hungry, as if she is afraid to touch the sky with her unwashed gray head. She collects crusts in the trash, spreads them and feeds homeless pigeons. Just seeing her, they fly to her varicose legs. She collects a scrap in the trash, cooks them in a peeling pan and feeds homeless cats. Just seeing the old woman, they run away from all sides of the world to knotted delicate hands. When I hold out a bill to the old woman, she indifferently puts her behind her bosom, looks at me with a watery insane look and says: “You know, son, everyone has already died, I have no one to feed any more.”

***

The Japanese are the masters of the animation. Even before the war, in 1936, they shot a cartoon about a disgusting American aggressor named Mickey Mouse, who attacked the country of Shinto-vocabulary gods-Japan. It is clear that Japanese toys spilled the American toy in full. Having looked at the cartoon, the Japanese generals were inspired and flew into Pearl Harbor. It was under the emperor Hirochito. The case ended with unconditional surrender and occupation of Japan by American mice, which by that time had grown to the size of the rats.

Hirohito himself was forced to take a picture with the main occupier - General Makartur, who was taller than the emperor for two heads. So that everyone understands who is the master in Japan. In 1975, the elderly Hirochito went to the USA on an American plane. President Gerald Ford, who was a former life champion in American football in his former life. He looked like a football player, with an inappropriate tie on a mighty chest. It was a meeting of two losers: Hirochito lost the war to America, and Ford - North Vietnam. Ford proceeded from his ideas about what could be interesting to the Japanese old man, and concluded that the emperor had already fallen into childhood. So Hirochito brought to Disneyland, where he patiently watched the parade of American film records. And he was accompanied by the same mouse. This time they acted humanely: Mickey Mouse was a little lower than the emperor. The emperor was a snagben, for the American sky bent him to the earth.

During the presentation on the ascetic face of the emperor, not a single muscle fluttered. The work of the emperor requires patience and a good nervous system. Hirochito had someone to take an example from-he was the 124th Japanese emperor and worked in this position for more than half a century. And Ford turned out to be the 38th president of the United States and sat in the presidential chair for less than three years. Both lived longer than usual.

***

Italy, Calabria, the town of Pizzo ... The midst of summer day: the stones are melting, the face burns, it was dry in the mouth. On the bench opposite the monument to Umberto I, with a glance that stopped in the nineteenth century, pensioners settled, dressed in their last fashion in their life: hats, jackets and ties, filled shoes on the bare foot. They noisily discuss the latest news: Marco beat Maria, soon a wedding at Niccolo. They also recall those glorious times when Calabrian Katanzaro played in the Higher Football League and took as much as seventh place. One old man admits: “The urine began to keep bad ...” The other interrupts him: “Do not take him in mind! In childhood, it was even worse! So you demonstrate progress! " The old people never grit their teeth, they simply are not: they fell out, they did not earn on strangers, but this does not prevent them from enjoying life. The word "melancholy" is unfamiliar to them.

Strong smoke of pensioner cigarillas interferes with iodized fisheries from fish shop. Then their girlfriend hugs to pensioners - with a wand. It seems that they see her in such a sissy for the first time, they are keenly interested in what is with her. She proudly takes the wand to the side, theatrically raises her left hand up and exclaims with undisguised phonetic bliss: “Polyrthroso!” And at that moment it seems that nothing terrible has happened to her and will never happen that she will pound the aria now ...

Alexander Meshcheryakov