Aging Gracefully
Trying to ‘age gracefully’ is something I have been working on for the past six years. Aging isn’t something you think about until you don’t have a choice anymore. It’s easy enough to ignore the lines you see on your face in the mirror every morning. Or the sagging body parts that we all have somewhere we don’t like. You see them everyday so it’s gradual and easy. Not for everyone of course, but as a general rule when you see someone you haven’t seen in a while, the magic mirror on the wall in your bathroom is staring back at you with different eyes. You see in the eyes looking back at you the same horror you feel looking at them. They can see the lines and sagging parts that you ignore, but so easily see in them. But hey, we can exercise and lose weight, dye our hair and for the wealthy, you can always have cosmetic surgery.
I don’t have children, so not watching kids grow up in my home has helped me not feel old too soon. I also have a wife that is almost a decade younger than me which helps not realizing that I’m in my 50s and have already passed middle age. You can even ignore your aging when your parents die because to you, they have always been old. You thought they were old when you were ten, no matter how young they were when they had you.
It has become very hard to deny the aging process more and more recently. When friends are getting sick more and more often. While it has helped make me more aware of my own good fortune in regards to health, it has made it very clear that my age is a reality. We often hear ‘age is just a number’ and it is, but it is a very real number. Even if we are fortunate enough to be graced with good health, our loved ones may not and that is a reality check that can’t be covered up with makeup, hair dye, bigger clothing size or a filter on a digital representation of oneself.
It’s not a matter of if, but when that slap in the face will come. If the earth keeps going around the sun, gravity and father time will catch up to us all one way or another. I am doing my best to ‘age gracefully’. Whatever that means. I guess it means different things to different people. I think it’s about acceptance of life in all its ups and downs, wrinkles, gray hair and all. Sometimes you need to rage against the dying of the light, but it’s good to know when to go with the flow.