Aging Gracefully
I think the most difficult part of aging is admitting to it. Before that you live in denial and sometimes make a spectacle of yourself trying to pretend that you’re still young.
My general image was the first to suffer as I grew older. First I got tired of the all-night parties; next the long hair with the occasional pony tail went out the door. Then my dress code went to the dogs. Gradually baseball caps made place for wide brimmed hats, T-shirts went out in favor of golf shirts & button up shirts, shorts became longer, canvas shoes gave way to leather shoes, jeans moved on for cotton slacks, and finally the vivid colors faded into something more sober.
Mind you, I still wear jeans more often than I should but that is because I think I still can. The thing is, I still have the same body as when I was 25. Over the last 40 years I gained 5 kilos. My ex-wife told me the other day that my bottoms don’t fill out my jeans as they used to but then my six-pack is still there; somewhat depleted but still there. So, as long as I can wear hipsters, I will. See, still the young man syndrome.
And I don’t know exactly when, why or how it happened but my taste for alcohol has faded. It was no conscious effort. I just discovered one day that I don’t drink half as much as I used to drink. My current view on alcohol is that I gave it up 20 years ago. I feel so proud of it that I celebrate it regularly with a few glasses of wine or brandy.
But it is not all milk and honey. In the mornings when I get out of bed my knees creak like an old shìthouse door and when my feet touch the cold floor all I can say is “f*ck, I’m still alive”, based only on the assumption that ghosts cannot feel the cold.
I cannot read without glasses and more than often I cannot remember where I left them last. I frequently find them on my head after looking everywhere else for 30 minutes or more. But there are advantages to a short memory; I forgive those who did me short much easier and I can read the same books and look at the same movies after a year or so.
Not ideal but it could have been worse. I have not (yet) grown any unruly hair at the most ungodly places and apart from a spot of arthritis and hypertension, I enjoy good health. Most my friends have many more ailments and they enjoy their old age; and so do I.
Admitting to old age does not mean surrendering to it.
And enjoy whatever you do today.
Comments (67)
Just like you, my Arty is aging gracefully too...well too graceful for my liking!
I actually would like him to have more wrinkles on his face!
You know it is too funny; My face has aged and my hands were always old, even as a young man. My feet are a mess but I'm proud of my body. If I can get a new face, hands and feet, I'd be young again. Maybe it is time for some plastic surgery.
A writing friend of mine posted a video of herself playing in the garden with her kids, they were firing water pistols at each other and she did a somersaulting roll to reach the safety of the bushes. It was the first time I have ever felt old - realizing that even under fire from real guns, no ways I could do such a thing
How dull it is to pause, to make an end
To rust unburnished, not to shine in use
As though to breathe were life ...
(Tennyson)
Funny and true of all your description. When getting aged, young spirit is needed. wish you this year 20 (yrs),and the next year 18 (yrs) .
I think longevity runs in families. My two grandfathers died at 96 and 97. My maternal grandmother was 102 when she died under surgery after breaking her hip. My father celebrated his 89th birthday a few months ago. He enjoys a good standard of living and still drives his own car. I'm looking forward to another 30 years.
No, the wrinkles and my ailing hair does not really bother me. But if I should decide to do something to my face, it will be to tighten the skin a bit. I do have some loose skin on my face. But I think it is much too early for that. I won't even think of it during the next 10 or 15 years.
They say that age is just a number. Maybe so but the older you get the more important that number becomes.
Oh, and Mic did a blog or three on some unexpected but welcome side effects which I hadn't actually noticed but explain a lot
That was a bit of exaggeration on my part heckling with myself.
It's not that bad. I eat a lot of lettuce. Also very good for lubricating the joints.
If you're going to hit me over the head with a piece of boerewors, make sure it is the cheap imitations of it because real boerewors is expensive and the best sausage money can buy. It will be such a waste. Rather use a raw fish; not only cheaper but it will be more effective.
You see, vain as I am, I still don't like to stand out in the crowd. When I go somewhere I like to be dressed rather similar to those with me as well as the other guests present. I don't want to be the only one in jeans. Nobody tells me that I may not wear jeans and no, I don't think there is a age limit for jeans but conformity demands that I dress for the occasion. At home I live in Jeans and canvas shoes.
Oh and I see you have been nominated as weird. For what it's worth, I don't think you're weird at all.
I shall just have to slap Non around a bit now.
Nah, that's what he wants
I should not have interfered. This is an Irish domestic problem then. I forgot that it was Non who said so.
That won't do. I'd be partial. After all, I'm the one who blew the whistle. Best I can do is as a wittiness but then again, with my fading memory...
Then give me chance to grow my hair. i suppose it will be ok to wear a T-shirt, canvas shoes and pink socks.
For me the most difficult part will be the time I´ll have to face aches and impossibility of doing that stuff I´m used to do ....not really worry about looks myself, maybe because I always felt older than I was.... weight is not an issue for me, fortunately because I eat a lot of sugar and incredible amounts of chocolate, but I workout and have an active lifestyle.
I´ve changed my style so many times in years ....motivated for my curiosity I guess, but always kept my preferences which are very basic, jeans & t-shirts. Recently I feel very much into eccentric looks (it happened in the past) hahahaha and I know this only could go better with age ;) but meanwhile I´m 50 and still wear my short jeans (yeap! short!) there isn´t any severe judge than myself
Whatever makes you happy Cat!
As for dress code, those tight T shirts, which once showed off a muscular physique , have also been replaced by button ups, to hide that once muscular physique,
And I sure find myself, talking about the past a lot, things I did , or could do, maybe I should leave those days there.
I don t mind slowly getting older, and aging gracefully, but in my case ,it seems I got up one day, and there it was,
You have a Good day Bud,
I'm not so sure if I have seven left. Apparently you are not informed when you have squandered one or more of your lives but I'm sure I drowned once or twice and I'm fairly certain I was shocked (electricity) to death at least once. So at best there could be 4 left, maybe less. I have been quite reckless at some stage in my life.
Re your short jeans; if you have the legs for it then you have it; don't you?
Such unadulterated honesty! I truly enjoyed reading this blog and all the comments.
Hiya Biff, Molly, Mimi
Thanks Bud
Don't worry buddy, it came as a shock to me as well. I stood in front of the mirror for a long time admiring my receding hairline and the crows feet at the corners of my eyes before it finally hit home.
Thank you!
Yep, age is a fact of life. The only way to avoid it is to die early and there is no fun in that.
I just turned 80 and proud of it. It gives you many priveledges too
Just checked, I got 15 years on you, could almost call you son
You are really still a whipersnapper compared to me so keep taking good care of yourself
Would you kindly share the secret of how to do that with me. I've been wanting to do it for many years.
I am trying to grow older gracefully
A whipersnapper!
I love that word.
But jokes aside, I'm very surprised. I have estimated you to be at least a decade younger. I guess that is thanks to your mild sun at your latitude. South African women have only woken up to the African sun lately.
I guess it is all in our genetic make-up. I'm slightly shorter than the average length fore a male in my father's family, a trait I inherited from my mother. otherwise I got most from my father; even the looks.
But then there is nothing ungraceful about the outer framework. It is the way you manage what you have that matters.
Don't you believe that! It is his big gut pulling him down.
But I could not resist that.
A whipersnapper!rolling on the floor laughing
I love that word.
But jokes aside, I'm very surprised. I have estimated you to be at least a decade younger. I guess that is thanks to your mild sun at your latitude. South African women have only woken up to the African sun lately.
hug
Catfoot this last remark will put you forever in my favour
Pictures lie, this one is about 3 years old but does not show wrinkles
Trust me those I earned, every one of them............
Jenny
I love it when somebody can laugh at himself. I do it all the time.
It will all come out in the wash