Sixty-Five

Sixty-five.  Hoodathunkit?  In two more days I’m gonna be 65.  It is an important mile-marker, I think, though age is, in some respects, just a state of mind.  I don’t feel 65.  That is something I have heard a lot of people say-that they don’t feel their age.  When I look in the mirror I expect to see a pup of 20 or so looking back at me but I see an old man instead.  Sometimes it is a shock.  Mostly I am used to it now.   My beard is fully gray and my hair is turning too.  My muscles have lost a good bit of the tone that they had all my life.  I am reconciling myself to the ‘things I can not change vs the things that I can change’ and the things I can still do easily and those that I cannot.  It is more a function of what my body can do as opposed to what my mind can do because my mind is aging more slowly than my body.  At least that is my feeling. 

Things I cannot do easily any longer:

-drive for long periods of time.

-tackle large, labor intensive projects.

-jump off of scaffolds higher than 3 feet off the ground.

-stay awake for the eleven o’clock news.

-put up with stupid people.

Things I can still do well:

-drive to my job in the Bronx (though I wish I had an automatic transmission for when I get caught in traffic jams on the Taconic.)

-work in my garden until I get tired then take a nap.

-climb up scaffolds

-sleep until 3:35am at which time I can sleep no longer.

-keep my mouth shut when confronted with stupid people.

I look forward to whatever is coming.  I used to think I knew what was coming but now I know that I know nothing about what is coming.  I love my wife and I am glad I never cheated on her.  I love my children though I know they are more important to me than I could ever be to them.  I love my dog more than my own life-and she deserves it.