Just Getting Older - Not Quitting!

Recently I received a personalized piece of advertising in the mail. 'Make History Again' it said. It was clean, sharp and expensive looking. I did not respond! I think the sender assumed I was a member of that privileged generation referred to as the Baby Boomers (1946-1964). Not everyone is in agreement as to the exact framing years of the American Boomers, but I am sure of one thing, this octogenarian does not fit the definition! According to the ad I received, "you're the generation that is considered to be the wealthiest, best educated, and most physically fit generation ever". Of course they are, they are all younger than I am!

Shaq O'Neil and Steve Nash when
they played for Phoenix.

There is a lovely framed picture of my father in our bedroom taken at the time of his 40th birthday. When I first saw that photo as a boy I remember thinking, "My gosh! My dad is really OLD". Sitting next to that photo today is another framed photo of me, taken at the time of my 40th birthday. And that was forty-four years ago!

Steve Nash is a Canadian professional basketball player for the Los Angeles Lakers when not injured. He has produced a couple of short films recently entitled 'Approaching the Finish Line". Steve has now reached forty and knows he is running out of time as a professional basketball player. The day is coming soon when the Lakers will end his career. He understands that ignoring  or barricading himself against tough changes in his life, will only ignite great anxiety. He is preparing for the day his love of playing  professional basketball will end and he will be ready.

Without sounding morbid, discouraged or depressed, there are moments when I realize that I too am running out of time. Steve Jobs summed it up wonderfully well when he said,"Because almost everything - all external expectations, all pride, all fear of  embarrassment or failure - these things fall away in the face of death, leaving what is truly important." 

Perhaps that ad identified me, not as a Baby Boomer, but stamped EOL on my portfolio, the  initials placed on products that no longer have a useful life! Whatever - I still didn't fall for it.

In  my youth I naively resolved never to behave like so many of the older men around me! But now I know why it was difficult for them to get out of a low chair, or slip into their socks in the cool of the early morning. Now I know what it is like to forget where I left my glasses or how arduous  it is to get out of the bath tub. I know what it is like to suffer fatigue, digestive problems and senior moments! I read somewhere that we lose brain cells as we age, but I also learned the neurones can form new connections to pick up the slack and preserve functions.

Adaptation

If we discover anything from our life experience it is this - change is inevitable and most of us have learned from it the lesson of adaptation. Remember the first time you moved away from home to start your own life?  As a young person you were excited and motivated to face the new possibilities and embrace the exciting challenges. It was not always easy, but you did it.

So too with getting old. There are new challenges, but there are also new opportunities. Time to appreciate art and music, time to acquire new skills, time to enjoy the wind in your face or the colour of the late evening sky. Time once again to adjust and be open to what lies ahead, and to embrace it with all your might. Time to stay engaged. And in the words of the poem by R. Tagore, "Let me not pray to be sheltered from dangers, but to be fearless in facing them."

I'm still not going to 'Make History Again' and buy that product so beautifully presented to me in the mail the other day. I'm not even going to think about it!

And that's Dick's View of the World this Week