Immortals

No one is immortal. Why do we strive to become immortal? The answer is obvious and has a lot to do with death. Death is not something we need to dwell on because it is going to happen no matter how good or brilliant or creative or beautiful or rich or famous or talented or, or, or. It is going to happen and does. There is no need, therefore, to think about it all the time. When you are old, and I am, you avoid thinking about it mostly because it's just around the corner and one day something is going to happen and you will know that your time is up. Being old is actually a very interesting experience. The body you have lived with your whole time on earth is changing and while the changes were rather gradual once, they are now not so. You can wake up one morning as an elderly aunt of mine did, and find that you can't get out of bed. What happened, you ask? Age happened. Aging is a natural process and it is denied by most of us until the denials don't remove the symptoms. You can try to slow it down by doing a whole lot of things both cosmetic and medical and physical and psychological, but come it does, and often times it is a big surprise. For most, however, it is a slow progressive state. It takes great patience to grow old and if you fight it with anger or frustration, and these emotions do arise, it only turns you into a cranky old geezer. Like having a tooth ache, it doesn't go away easily. There is pain involved and it's not something you want to speak of unless you are with another one of your ilk and there is some comfort in talking it over a bit. Listening in to elders talk about their complaints isn't something to attempt. I find it best to avoid the subject altogether and even the latest jokes about aging don't work for me. Aging is no joke. Pain in joints happens and there is all sorts of advice to make it stop. The advice that gets me is that of younger gym and yoga types who don't know what aging feels like, but who think that if you just do blankety blank, you won't feel the pain. Oh really? What do they know? The best exercise is so gentle that it's almost not there, but after a nice pleasant easy stretch it does feel finer. Not perfect, but finer. I have a friend who trots out briskly every day after a bedside routine and highly recommends it to everyone else as being the right thing to do. Just look at her and you will see, she brags. She does look good. But I am not her. Then there is the guy of great age who believes in yoga classes that are what keeps him so young and handsome. Probably gazing about the roomful of moving youthful bodies helps.These two are the lucky ones and those who have no idea what most of the rest of us fools  are experiencing. And you cannot convince them so. They, the lucky ones, have the answer. Luck is involved in a big way in aging. Some of my smartest friends ended up with Alzheimers. Others, once healthy and into sport, were stricken suddenly by various cancers and yet others had strokes that rendered them with no memory or speech or movement. Deafness and bad eyesight make wrinkles look tame! All the botox and injected cow fat and creams and lotions and plastic surgery to fend off aging don't work long. These all are supposed to convince us that age doesn't happen to "me" in our MeMeMe society. Aging, I think, is fascinating and even with a certain amount of pain and change, I am still alive and well enough and am loving every second of it. I don't want people cooing at me or baby talking to me in that tone they use on elders. I am what I always was. I am not half dead, I am just as alive as before in my life, and breathing and loving and hoping and wishing.  I get and do the cyber thing, the electronics, have a reasonable memory, hearing and sight which adds up to the fact that I am okay. So far. Life couldn't be better in my lane.