chelsea cookYou would never guess it as I look hardly older than a teenager, but I have reached an age where I am supposed to “slow down.”  So my question is: “Why?” There is too much to get done and too many things i want to do and too many things I still can do so there isn’t time to slow down. Actually, I have been this way all my life in that today is tomorrow somewhere so get it all done today. The change has been in the ability to work outside in the heat. As much as I like summer and brag about playing tennis in 100F weather when I was younger, I can no longer safely do that.
Most of the guys I grew up with were also very much like that. One friend from high school, college and other activities we won’t mention was building an airplane when I was out there a few years ago. And by “out there’ I mean way out there. There is one large city between him and the end of the world so if he drove really fast he would probably fall off the world. We both nearly did that more than once but we shall not go there today. Yessir, I will admit that not every decision we made was considered to be the ultimate of intelligent reasoning. But the point is, whenever I get around to it, is that even at his age (he acts and thinks much older than me) he is not only building an airplane but he will probably fly it.
Another friend from high school still does work for the company he retired from and then travels half way to too far and back doing car shows. I could do that also except they do not have a category for clown cars and if I attempted to rebuild a car for a show it would have to be as a bad example. For all the jobs I have held and work I have done I never got the hang of anything past simple repair work. I have fixed lawnmowers, small engines, bicycles and such like but never got into changing out the geewhiz for a super-modified dingfaz which would make the short stubby whirl at 750RPM. But I can still take a clarinet with eleventeen keys and more teeny screws than a space shuttle and i can repad or adjust almost all of it. But somehow you got me off the subject.
We were speaking of not stopping everything because of age which seems to be a politically correct thing among politicians these days. To think of this you will have to put yourself back to 14 - 16 years old. Imagine having a teacher who is over 75 years old and can’t remember where his/her room is. Imagine boarding an overseas superjet and watching while your 76 year old pilot boards and is helped to find the cockpit. There is a reason for people slowing down and I am all for it. I just don’t want to stop. The friends I have mentioned do not want to stop and so we all keep doing too much and, until someone mentions it, we don’t really think about it.
Age is an attitude. Old age is giving in to that attitude. One does not have to be an “old person” just because one has attained several years in chronological age. Chronological age, of course, can restrict you in certain ways but should not restrict your capacity to live a full life. AND NO, I do not mean one should go out on a Ya HAA night every Saturday evening. There are too any other ways to have a life after one has to quit punching the clock (as it were). One can find this bit of advice just about everywhere but too many people just sit around and rot. Find something to do! It is hard to believe but I am no genius but I have advised people for years to not retire from something but TO something. To us A D D people there are few things more sad than seeing a talented person just sitting around slowly disintegrating. It is like bad science fiction only with the mind melting rather than the body.
Several years ago when I was in Finland, my first host was an elderly gentleman who collected stamps. He had books of them and could tell you the stories and history of each one. It took an amazing amount of brain activity to do all that mental exercise. It took very little physical activity but he made up for that in other ways. Try to remember, wine only gets better with age. Try to be Cabernet Sauvignon not vinegar.