Amazon and Aging

There is an Amazon Ad where you see three very senior women sitting on a park bench outside a sliding hill. They look sad, like life has left them behind.

One of the women orders pads from Amazon, and in the next scene, we see the three women getting ready to slide down the hill, sitting on their pads with skiing helmets on for safety.

In the next scene, the three women are going down the hill, having the time of their lives and remembering when they were young and had wooden toboggans as very young women.

Here's the link to the ad, and I dare you not to stop crying as you watch.

Every time I watch this, even though I've now seen it at least twenty times, I tear up. Too often, we see our elders, including me, watching from the sidelines and remembering what it used to be like.

For me, it's often me thinking about hitting a slice backhand on the tennis court as I fall to sleep. I lost tennis in my first trip through cancer world, and will often wistfully think about hitting that shot down the sideline, winning the point.

The truth is, I've only successfully hit that shot a few times in my life. And, when I did, it was a high point in my tennis for that day.

We lose things that we used to be able to do and say to ourselves, "Oh well, that's one less thing I can do."

The issue becomes when we lose one thing after another, and before we know it, what we have left is almost nothing. That's what comes across to me in this ad and why I find it so emotionally engaging every time I watch it.

Why don't you watch the ad and let me know what you think about it and what emotions come up for you?