AGING

I have an announcement:  I, am old.  Okay – not quite yet, but I ASPIRE to be old.  That definitely puts me in the minority.  I LIKE oldness.  I value age.  I am not just being contrary, or living in denial.  I have given it a lot of thought and conventional wisdom about aging doesn’t make much sense.

I work with young people, and, as many of you may know, I used to be a young person, so I have some experience.  Being young is just not what it is cracked up to be.  Being young is really hard, and confusing, and full of pitfalls.  Consider the difficulties of “coming of age” or “biological clocks” and then, of course, there is angst.  Old people don’t have angst.  We have stress and we have dementia, but angst is reserved for the young.

Every day, I talk to someone who is terrified to see youth slipping away.  Good Riddance!  Really, turning 29 is not the most wretched thing that will ever happen to you; neither is turning 59.  Bring on the birthdays!!  As long as you can still see candles, you’ve got reasons to celebrate.

A whole bunch of codgers my age have been overheard whining that they envy youth – but why?  What can 23 do that 63 cannot? (outside touching toes, which, frankly, is not that satisfying!)  At 23, I was pregnant, short of money, and still not sure what I wanted to be when I “grew up”.  At 57, I am not pregnant and never will be again – that alone should make this part of my life desirable.  I know who I am and where I want to go.  I have actually BEEN some of those places!  I have even achieved some of my goals.  I still have work to do, but I’ll get to it eventually, or maybe, with the wisdom of the old, I will decide I don’t want it anyway.  Either way, I win!

The reasons we hate being old don’t really have much to do with how old we are.  We hate age because we are not as healthy as we used to be.  Well that makes no sense.  Is diabetes more enjoyable when you are 7?  Maybe it is the illness that is problematic, and not the age.  It makes sense that we have collected more aches and pains –we have also collected more joys.  Show me a 30 year old who can brag about her granddaughter’s graduation!!  We overlook those joys so we can sulk about the laugh lines they produce. 

Some of us hate age because we no longer feel sexy.  And why is that?  Is “sexy” something that happens outside you?  It is true that Playboy has not called me lately, but if I give it a little thought, I may remember that they never did have me on speed dial.  Truly – your lost youth wasn’t as cool as you remember.  I know – I was there.

Old-ness is freedom.  The kids are grown.  The car is paid off.  And AARP gets me great discounts.  I love being old, because I have a lot to DO.