Dec 26 2008
Aging Accelerates After Sixty
Aging Accelerates After Sixty
I’ve really noticed a difference is how my body has reacted to physical changes during the past two years. I am just a month away from age 62. I now feel, for the first time, like an “older” or “elderly” man.
This really sounds bad, I know, but in fact I always expected this to be happening after I turned 50. I don’t know what “normal” is supposed to feel like at this age, since….like you…I have never been down this road before. I felt great at fifty.
I even felt pretty good at 60. I knew I was slowing down some, and the pace at work was becoming more difficult to keep up with. I recognized that the 30-year-old’s in the shop were quicker on the uptake than I was. They reminded me of myself thirty years earlier. They treated me well…with deference even…and I wondered if I was as considerate in my thirties. By the time I arrived home on a Friday night I was thoroughly exhausted…mentally and physically…and by Sunday afternoon was dreading the return to work on Monday morning. So I retired just one month after I reached sixty.
The past year I have really begun to feel the early morning stiffness in the joints. I am affected by the cold weather this winter moreso than ever in my lifetime. I am a regular consumer of ibuprofen during these very cold days. I still get outside. There is a driveway to shovel and dog doo to pickup and a deck to shovel off so the dogs have some space without a foot of snow cover so they can hang out while I am off running errands.
I am spending more time at the computer because that is where I feel most comfortable; like I am accomplishing something without having to move around outside a lot. My spouse thinks that I ought to move around outside a lot more, and that would help my aches and pains. I don’t know. I still hope that some yoga and stretching will slow down the aging process a little, but I realize “age” is here to stay: it can’t be reversed.
