NEOPHOBIC FAMILIES AND FPPF

 

Unless you killed in an accident or become sick and die, you will continue living. For a while.

 

You would not believe how many people avoid this reality. They may be reminded when they receive a funny greeting card on a birthday or anniversary, but otherwise they choose denial and cling to evasion with admirable tenacity. But there is a cost to living day after wonderful day.

 

Many are flummoxed when they do not continue in the same health and condition as they enjoyed ten years previous. Personally, I don’t like the decline however subtle, but there doesn’t appear to be much I can do about it, Dr. Oz and the latest health juju not withstanding.

We buy life insurance, car insurance, stumble around to find understandable health insurance. What we cannot purchase at any price is a guarantee that health and energy will continue unabated forever and ever. In fact the opposite is a surety. Following a stint with Weight Watchers, I can barely tolerate the maxim, Failure to Plan is a Plan to Fail. Unfortunately FPPF is truest with our health and preparations for eventual sickness.

There is a price to be paid for living. (Older people tend to repeat themselves.)

 

So here is reality. As we age we require more medications that require more money from the insurance plus our co-pay. Once we start down this slippery slope there is no loose gravel to dig in, gain traction and climb back up.

You can claim otherwise but the statistics are not in your favor. And reality shadows the sun in many unpleasant directions.

 

If you are younger than 40, the above sad tale may be describing your parents rather than yourself, for now. We have been fortunate to have my 98-year old mother blaze a path through mortality and we commend her for aging gracefully. Especially since tomorrow is Mother's Day. But we witness many families where FPPF is the modus operandi. When one parent or both become ill, the children react as if the decline must be temporary and soon Dad or Mom will bounce back to the vibrant person they have always been.

 

These families suffer from “Neophobia” and are crippled by FPPF.