Crow’s Feet: Life As We Age

“The longer I live, the more beautiful life becomes.” (Frank Lloyd Wright) Non-fiction pieces, personal essays and occasional poems that explore how we feel about how we age and offer tips for getting the most out of life.

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HUMOR

Should Everyone Who Doesn’t Get Their Social Security Check This Month Set Fire to a Tesla?

No! Absolutely Not! That’s a TERRIBLE Idea!

Photo by BoliviaInteligente on Unsplash

Commerce Secretary Howard Lutnick recently said that his 92-year-old mother-in-law wouldn’t complain if her Social Security check didn’t arrive this month.

The louder you holler about the fact that your check hasn’t arrived, Lutnick suggested, the more likely it is that you are a fraudster trying to scam the federal government and not an innocent oldster who relies on that monthly check to pay your bills.

I don’t know what reality this man is living in, but it isn’t the reality I’ve been living in for the past 70 years.

Two weeks ago, a friend of mine phoned me in a panic because her check hadn’t arrived. Because she, too, lives in reality and not in Lutnick’s fantasy dream world—she was scared.

She pays attention to the news. She knows what Elon and his DOGE gang have been up to. She knows what Project 2025, Trump’s playbook, has to say about Social Security.

And she needs that check.

It took me 20 minutes to talk her down off the ledge.

I assured her that it probably wasn’t Elon and DOGE taking a chainsaw to her monthly check. It was probably just a glitch.

“Sit tight. Wait five business days,” I told her. “It’ll probably turn up.”

And? It did.

So she didn’t have to wait on hold for hours trying to get through to the two remaining phone-answering Social Security employees or stand in line all day at the nearest Social Security office or set fire to a Tesla.

Why on earth would my friend set fire to a Tesla?

People have been setting Teslas on fire to protest Elon Musk’s indiscriminate firing of federal workers and catastrophic shrinking of the size of government.

Would my 70-year-old pal actually set fire to a Tesla?

On the one hand, we seniors grew up in a more polite time. We were taught to use our words to communicate rather than throw a tantrum and break things when we didn’t get what we wanted.

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Crow’s Feet: Life As We Age
Crow’s Feet: Life As We Age

Published in Crow’s Feet: Life As We Age

“The longer I live, the more beautiful life becomes.” (Frank Lloyd Wright) Non-fiction pieces, personal essays and occasional poems that explore how we feel about how we age and offer tips for getting the most out of life.

Roz Warren, Writing Coach
Roz Warren, Writing Coach

Written by Roz Warren, Writing Coach

Writing Coach Roz Warren (roSwarren@gmail.com) can help you improve and publish your work. Roz writes for everyone from the Funny Times to the New York Times.

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