Photo by Juan Bacab on Unsplash
At the grocery this week, I glimpsed a magazine cover featuring 80-year-old Cher, and my first thought was how very old she looks (notwithstanding the best plastic surgery Money can buy). Cher is definitely Aging. So are Bob Dylan, Harrison Ford, Tom Hanks, and Dolly Parton. You can see the ravages of aging in their faces.
It makes me sad to see other people aging. Fortunately, I’m not aging at all. I don’t feel old. I don’t look old. My face looks the same as it did 30 years ago (if you don’t look closely at the baggy folds below my eyes. And a few speckles of gray in my beard).
I lift weights three times a week and walk almost daily. I’m more fit now than I have ever been in my life (aside from the 20-pound hemisphere protruding from my midsection).
I eat a mostly plant-based Diet, supplemented occasionally by fish and animals who also maintained plant-based diets. I can eat virtually anything I want (except fried foods and sodas, which trigger acid reflux).
My eyesight remains keen (or will be, after cataract surgery next year).
My hearing is quite good (although it does bother me that everyone around me mumbles).
I am an excellent conversationalist (although sometimes I leave a thought dangling because the word I am looking for won’t come to me for 15 minutes.)
The fact that I receive Social Security checks and Medicare benefits is not proof that I am aging. These rewards are based on reaching a chronological age and say nothing about how fit and alert one might be. I also accept senior discounts because I am entitled to them.
Despite not aging, my wife and I have put our names on the waiting list for an independent living unit in a senior housing project. I have mixed feelings about doing this. I’m not sure how I will feel about being surrounded by old people. My wife, who is five years younger, feels the same way. But the waiting list is rumored to be about six years long, so we think of it as an insurance policy in case one of us does start to age. You never can tell.
It pains me to see some of our friends aging before my eyes, brought down by Arthritis, neurological diseases, Cancer, cardiac issues, or cognitive decline. Yet we remain friends because I appreciate the value of intergenerational Relationships.
I’m lucky that I am not aging. As long as I continue to ignore any evidence to the contrary, I’m certain I can make it go away.
