I'm 60. That's not old. Of course, "Old" is a moving target, something like 5 years older than I am.
I told a teenage friend a story, finishing with, "And I'm not old." She looked at me as if to say, "And what planet are YOU from?"
I work Private Duty, taking care of medically fragile children in their own homes. I had one mother tell her 6-year old (in front of me), "Be careful, don't trip the nurse. She might fall and break her hip!"
And then there was the mom who told me that she was glad that I was spry!
Spry: (definition) Markedly brisk and active, especially at an advanced age!
OK, I have gray hair. I earned it. And I'm not about to bother coloring it. But I don't act old. I play with the kids on the floor, and I pop right back up.
It makes total sense. I'm 51 and like to think I'm as fit and active as a healthy 35 year old but my knees are bone on bone and some days I feel like my body is betraying me!
I had my child when I was 20 so we had a lot of fun doing active things together-I sometimes find it hard to believe my baby boy is a 30 year old man! LOL.
I probably have more of a desire to do riskier sporting activities like motorcycles, fast cars, sky diving now that I'm older. I mean I've got less to lose-time wise, my kid is grown. I want to have a few WOW experiences before I'm too old to actual do them.
What boggles my brain is that my brain/mind does not think, feel, old.
I was listening to Sirius radio, Doctor Radio, about TBI. The host, (a doctor), a guest MD who specialized in TBI, and the guest, a snowboarder qualifying to be on the Olympic team who had had a severe TBI. The snowboarder said (I'm badly paraphrasing) when he had bone or muscle injuries his body (brain) knew it, felt it, he knew to take it easy, rest, let the injury heal. But after his TBI his brain could not, did not, acknowledge it had been injured. He thought he could compete again, (he couldn't).
I feel the same about my body getting old. My brain doesn't seem to acknowledge that the body (and mind) is old? I have to consciously acknowledge that I can't physically perform as well as I did 20 years ago, from driving, a car to jumping on my bike, to climbing to the top of a ladder to prune my tree!
I don't know if that makes any sense?
I heard that show. I love Dr. Radio.
This thread is timely as a friend of mine from high school and I were discussing a video put out by AARP - even though I'm not a fan of AARP I love the video so I'll link it here.
Personally, I'm still in pretty good shape for 58. I've run a half-marathon but my son's mother-in-law is a triathlete and she is gorgeous! Her body is amazing. We are the same age.
And I'm not letting my hair go gray . . . it really does age me. So my only indulgence is coloring my hair every 4-5 weeks at a professional salon.
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PANYNP
105 Posts
Ageism appears to be rampant!?