Self-distancing

The membership age for AARP was lowered from age 55 to 50 in 1984, although the RP stands for Retired Persons. Most people not working at age 50 are considered unemployed but it does not matter because with my connections, I can broker a membership for anyone over 21. The latest issue of AARP Magazine published an article explaining some of the reasons Queen Elizabeth II has been so successful in life. She is adept at self-distancing which is different than pandemic social distancing. A self-distancing person is one who views their experience as an observer while a self-immersed individual recalls events in first-person. The AARP article says the Queen can wade through daily tabloid stories without vanity, remaining detached and even amused as a spectator. Donald Trump and I can be described as self-immersed based on the following principle: Whenever behavioral psychologists divide people into two categories, Donald and I are presumably in the bad one. I started researching Wikipedia hoping to find that self-immersed people can be further divided into subgroups so I can be in a different one from The Donald. But I was too distracted and stressed reading Blog and email comments. Wikipedia says Queen Elizabeth declared 1992, the 40th anniversary of her reign, as her annus horribilis (horrible year). The Royal Family was beset with marital affairs, separations, a divorce, a large fire at Windsor Castle, an egging of the Queen in Germany, a legal battle with The Sun newspaper, and intense criticism on several fronts. She acknowledged that any institution should expect criticism but offered that it could be done with a “touch of humour, gentleness, and understanding.” I am not qualified as a full psychologist (I only made it to psycho) but AARP does seem to have correctly pegged Queen Elizabeth as a classic self-distancer.