Aging

An uninteresting topic for the young, and an overdone topic for others, but this is starting to get personal.

I am 61 (is 60 the new 50?) and notice things. I notice that I don’t recover as quickly from a workout. I know that my ankle won’t actually get better, and I won’t be doing a lot of running any longer. I can see signs of aging in my face now. I know that I love to nap (okay never mind that one, I have always loved to nap).

I grew up as an athletic young fella; learned to play soccer and did so until I was 50, and tore the ACL in each knee successively, after I was 40. I started to notice that when I pulled a muscle it took months to heal. WTF – I could get back on the soccer field the following week when I was in college.. I got to play with my kids only once or twice in the town Adult soccer league, before I was forced to retire from playing and resorted to coaching. I couldn’t wait for my oldest to get strong enough to go for a run with me. She did so, and we ran together for about a year and then she just passed me by (and joined the track team), so that was about it.

Now I am over 60 and something always niggles. It could be that goddamn ankle (arthritic now, they tell me, after 40 years of playing soccer and spraining it countless times), or it could be my shoulder, or my wrist. Whatever it is, it goes away, especially if I ignore it or just don’t use it for a while, but this is discouraging.

I still play tennis; I don’t go for runs much any more but I go for walks every day – dogs are good for that. I pay attention to what I eat now – my son nudged me into the keto diet and I lost weight and feel better.

I guess what they say is right- aging happens to everyone, and it sure beats the alternative. Here’s to hoping that 70 is the new 60.