Old words come into our experience

 

I hate lingering

I have been a student of history all my life. I have read about the lives of famous people. And one of the words often linked with their death is lingering.- lasting for a long time or slow to end: there are still some lingering doubts in my mind | a painful and lingering death. We may say at someone's death, "We are thankful she didn't linger on." 

When you get to a certain age, the significance of lingering becomes more personal. It may take longer to recover from sicknesses than when you were younger recovery was quicker. The word's origin comes from Middle English, in a sense to dwell, abide; frequently connected with a more obsolete word, leng prolong of German origin related to German langen, make longer also too long referring to some love or desire hoped to be fulfilled. Often the desire still needs to be achieved. 

Linger is an old term used by ancient people or writers of history about things long past. But then the word appears in our speaking, mainly because somehow we have experienced it.

As Bugs Bunny would say, "Morbid ain't he." The experience is funny when understood by people of a certain age who choose to remember their 10-year-old humor. Comrades in arms are going through the same battle. Grant you it's dark humor. One finds themselves dealing with challenging experiences.

It reminds us that getting old isn't for sissies.

Covid isolated us, but now is the time to come out of our health bunkers and support each other with the care of our loved ones or those who are alone. My generation is a selfish bunch of XXXX XXXX. Who is just learning about lingering? It doesn't relate to our idea of retiring in a playground. But then, "Here we are." Keep Walking.