It's been said that getting old isn't for wimps and a recent visit to the dentist validated that saying in spades. Nothing excruciating like a pulled tooth or root canal. No, just a routine, scheduled cleaning. For twenty minutes the hygienist worked enthusiastically at removing the tartar from my teeth with a machine that shot a wee-tiny jet stream of high-pressure water at the target while I waited, sweat rising from my brow, for the next nerve ending to fall victim. A form of pure torture worthy of note alongside pillories, chalkboard scraping, and the Klingon Agonizer. When the dentist's assistant had finished, she left me with these reassuring comments: "There is not much you can do to prevent the tartar. It forms faster as we age."
Indeed, it seems that every day dawns with a new ache or pain. There's no getting around it, the battle may be won but the war is surely lost. To make matters worse, there is a psychological toll as well the physical one. In his later years, my Uncle Howard would tell me: "The worst part of getting old is that you start to think that every small hang-nail is fatal." I've come to appreciate that little truism as well.
Hypochondria aside, tomorrow is not a promise. Therefore, in my own personal battle against the ravages of time, I hope to itemize on an ongoing basis in this blog entry a few benefits that are becoming increasingly obvious in spite of the continuing failings.
In your face, aging process!
Social Security (added 01/15/2022)
Even now, as the aging process adds more years to my ledger and I become ever more unemployable, the majority (nearly 40) of my years (nearly 70) remain predominated within the gainful employ of corporate America. On average, a check was written to my account every two weeks. Paper checks early on and electronic deposits later in life. Regardless of the medium, a line item was always deducted from the check-stub total:
FICA(.075%) - $xx.xx.
Now, I never bothered to give it much thought as death and taxes are the only two certainties in life. No, not much thought except when the office pundit perched next to the water cooler droned on about the fragility of the system or the browsing of a financial journal revealed an article that premised the system would soon be bankrupt and that all would be lost. In truth, the future looked bleak many a time. Sometimes it felt like walls of water above were about to crash over us as we crossed beneath and that all would surely be washed away.
Water coolers were being phased out about the same time that I was but something tells me that the office pundits are still going strong. Indeed, time may yet prove all those many experts correct, but for five plus years a monthly deposit has miraculously appeared in our checking account which is labeled:
SSA TREAS 310 - XXSOC SEC. / Post Date xx/xx/xxxx
No, we're not getting rich on these benefits, but we find each to be an amazing blessing. In light of the uncertainties wandered through, each benefit is not unlike a piece of manna from heaven.
Eye Contact (added 01/16/2022)
For the majority of my adult life I have always tried to make eye contact with passerby's. This habit is especially evident on my daily jog or walk. Inevitably, these efforts for years too many were met with a stare at the pavement and a hastened gait - especially if the recipient of my gaze was female. No criticism intended. I get it.
In the recent past, my world has turned upside down. Now, it is not uncommon for a women to give me a nod and even say "hi" as we pass. This change of behavior has been dramatic and my initial suspicion was that I had aged into something pathetic and the response was merely one of sympathy, perhaps even pity. As the phenomena continued I wondered if the filters to my ever healthy male ego had fallen victim to the advances of age. Perplexed, I asked Jamie for her thoughts and she said that in all likelihood I had arrived at a "fatherly" or even "grandfatherly" persona in life and that I was no longer perceived as any sort of threat. Hmmmm.....is that her kind and gentle way of saying pathetic?
Regardless, the world is just naturally a better place when you're given eye contact along with a smile and a "Good morning" from a pretty young lady.
The National Parks Pass (added 02/02/2022)
Nearly 27 years ago Jamie and I spent a couple of hours during our honeymoon on a beach in Puerto Vallarta, Mexico. In the course of that reddening event we were approached by a number of vendors hawking their wares to the refrain "almost free". I guess we must have looked like tourists but I can't imagine why.
Some years later, I stopped by Craters of the Moon National Monument and Preserve in Idaho on my way to Yellowstone National Park. The attendant at the gate gave me a cordial greeting and then asked:
"How old are you?"
I was a bit taken aback by the question but summoned all the pride I could and replied, "62".
To which the attendant offered, "Well, our daily pass is $10 but if you like you could buy a Senior Pass for $15 instead. That pass gets you in here plus it gives you access to all of our national parks and federal recreation lands - and it's a lifetime pass. It's a special offer that the parks are doing right now for our senior citizens."
Well, I didn't feel much like a senior citizen but the tightwad in me wasn't about to let a little thing like ego mess up an opportunity for "lifetime" anything and I broke out the extra $5. The pass has been used at any number of venues in the interim and I am continually amazed that our government not only allows me to witness first-hand some of the most majestic and awe inspiring spaces on planet earth, but they actually invite me in, almost free.
Is this a great country or what?
Battle Wounds (added 02/26/2022)
No, by the Grace of God I've been spared the experience of actual combat. No, the wounds to which I refer are those gathered within the humdrum of everyday life. Those out-of-the-blue missteps that resulted in the woulda, coulda, and shoulda moments that are impossible to snatch back. They've all left a mark although there is little doubt that some have healed better than others with the passage of time.
I for one don't want to be "young" again. My battle scars came with a cost - physical, emotional, psychological, and spiritual. Some bled profusely when they were fresh. Some where traumatic, if only in my mind, and they scabbed and poured puss for years unending. Some came with the sting of embarrassment while others remain simply embarrassing. All knit together within God's plan to construct the person that I've become.....for better or worse. I've become accepting if not thankful for that small wonder.
Learning lasts a lifetime and one of God's great truths is that gratitude allows one to savor and bask in the present.
