AGING WITHOUT GROWING OLD

Longevity depends on so many factors: genetic inheritance, life style, exposure to toxins, accidents, mind set, life stressors, endocrine balance, neurotransmitter balances and many more factors, for which I am using training wheels.

Recently I received a pps presentation in email that made me really try to understand some of the sentimental, pseudo-spiritual stuff with which many of us are gifted.
The following are among some of those 'treasures'.

-"So long as one continues to be amazed, one can delay growing old." It is my sincere hope this writer will never become a researcher. I've missed the connection. One criteria determines growing old? Alzheimer patients are constantly being amazed and lots of them are really old, look old, and act even older.

-"Old age arrives suddenly as does the snow. One morning on awakening one realizes that everything is white." That can only mean the denial finally cracked! Old age is insidious and creeps up gradually. Most people don't have one 'aha' moment but start having them frequently, generally after they realize there are adults younger and more alive than they, and when they have a good mirror.

-"It is by growing old that one learns to remain young." When you grow old you cannot turn back the clock; you will never again be young no matter how much plastic surgery, hair transplants, tummy tucks, or other attempts to recreate what was once there. It ignores that some human functions are ageless, like a mind that imitates the Energizer Bunny and just keeps on going.

-"Old age embellishes everything. It has the effect of the setting sun on the beautiful twilights of Autumn." Wrinkles, poor vision and hearing, medical problems, incontinence, dentures, and all the accouterments of seniors can be considered embellishment by some, but most would call them something more parasitic.

-"As one grows old one generally rids himself of his shortcomings because they no longer serve a useful purpose." This is the first I have heard that shortcomings serve a purpose and are not just liabilities and a disappointment, annoyance or just plain PITA to those around them.

-"The person who considers himself too old to learn something has probably always been that way." This one almost made a bit of sense. Of course it doesn't consider that some people just stop caring about some things. However, the saying holds true if it means that a person who is alive will always be wanting to add more knowledge to their already slowed down mental CPU and almost full-to-capacity drive in their cranium.

I'd rather be able to say, "Growing old is what I do best. Nothing but death can stop me, While I am doing it, I am learning, having fun, and enjoying the process most of the time. I love that some people tell me I neither look nor act my age, except my brother who tells me I look like an old hag. I hate that younger people talk about me, in my presence, with things like, "Isn't she cute?" It makes me want to say, "Would someone bring me a dry Depends?" Then I will start boring them (or shocking them) with tales of my youth and tell them they are too young to understand.