The Alternative is Worse

I know that, but I hate getting old. I can run three miles, three times a week. I can do weight training. I try to take 10,000 steps (5 miles) almost every day. But if I drop something on the ground, it is ugly to watch me try to squat down and pick it up. Like I said, I hate getting old.

First it was my eyes: I had perfect vision till I was 35 years old. Then my eyes lost their elasticity and they couldn’t change shape to see things up close. When my arms grew too short for me to hold something with small type far enough away to read it, I had to break down and get reading glasses.

Now the bottom of my foot isn’t as elastic as it once was. The large piece of tissue on the bottom of my foot hurts and keeps me from running and standing unless I stretch my foot and calf muscles several times a day and wear special orthotic inserts in my shoes. This malady is called plantar fasciitis.

Skin that used to be smooth as satin, now look more like crepe paper

I take a low dose aspirin each day, per doctor’s orders. Doesn’t everyone over the age of 50 do the same? And when I bump my arm or hand the slightest bit against something sharp, I quickly find a red splotch—we call that an old person mark. I remember seeing those marks on my mother’s arms. Am I really that old already?

An ad for some pharmaceutical product proclaims, “a body at rest remains at rest; a body in motion remains in motion." I try very hard to keep my body in motion. I am quickly bored if I have to sit still very long. But nothing works as well or as easily as it used to. Like I said, I hate getting old.

And it isn’t just my body that has aged. My mind doesn’t remember as well or think as fast as it did when I was in my 20s or 30s or 40s. But I guess I don’t really want to be in my 20s or 30s or 40s, either. I’ve been there, done that, and I have lots of t-shirts to prove it. There are many good things about being in my 60s and retired. I think I’ll focus on that—as soon as I can get my mind to change directions!