“For it is not enough to have a good mind; the main thing is to apply it well.” — Rene Descartes

It would be a leap forward if older folks could fall in slow-mo. After all, they (are) have had our measure of falls in fast-mo.

In addition to that idea, as one ages, concrete seems to gain in hardness. I have busted my noggin on this stuff, and the results are not pretty.

Our older folks should be spared certain things: slovenly relatives, meanspirited neighbors, stupidity and ignorance in broad dimensions.

You get my drift. Each of these groups seem to display similar motivations: noxious behavior and silly pronouncements. It devolves to the point one wonders what became of good manners and civility.

The maxim, “There’s no accounting for taste,” holds.

Some quite remarkable people are among us. However, this small eclectic group consists of about five percent of the whole.

Think about that for a moment. Ninety-five percent of us are riding the backs of a dedicated and honorable few. I am reminded of Sir Winston Churchill’s remark during WWII: “Never have so many owed so much to so few,” speaking of the valor and courage of the Royal Air Force pilots who defended Great Britain.

And Adm. Chester Nimitz’s observation, “Uncommon valor was a common virtue,” speaking of the young men who fought and died on Iwo Jima, a volcanic rock no one of us had ever heard.

It is uplifting to realize that some step forward and do their duty well. The singular word ‘duty’ was the call-word for Robert E. Lee during our own paroxysm of greed, power and stupidity in which 600,000 died for a belief.

Those who fret for war are most spectacularly the ones who do not shoulder arms.

One is appalled at those who yet believe that Vietnam was an honorable exercise. We honor only those who sacrificed lives and health, not the decision to engage. Servicemen and women have no choice but to obey orders.

Many of us stepped off the high-school graduation ceremony into one of the several armed services during World War II — 17-, 18-year-old city and country boys alike. Again, a few years later we were called for the “police action” in Korea, the “forgotten war” as some have dubbed it.

There’s no denying that every armed service person has had to endure some really stupid orders at one time or another. Since the chain of command is long and steeped in hubris at times, the lowly grunt has no choice.

“Orders is orders,” and the grunts do their duty.

Maybe wars are one of the things that age us. Hard to say.

But one unconscious misstep can send one headlong into that ever-harder concrete.

Canes, walkers and wheelchairs have their place.

However, one’s pride and self-worth seem to diminish somewhat when such crutches are called upon to bear our weight since the old pins fail to adequately perform their function as they once did. Best to recall the old adage, “pride goeth before a fall.”

So there you have it. The essence of slo-mo is “let’s go, but vereee carefulleee.”

Also, let me be perfectly clear here with full disclosure: There’s nothing that whips up my laugh track more than when, on America’s Funniest Home Videos, people fall in crazy ways using stupidity as their calling card.

So I guess there is some place for stupidity. Just don’t call me a spoil sport, thank you very much.