I don't like growing old in the physical sense. Everything is harder. Walking. Climbing. Staying awake until 10. There's very little that improves. Hair falls out where I want it to stay and comes in where I never imagined it could. My eyesight was poor at five years old to begin with and has only gone downhill since. My teeth are fighting to stay alive. My hearing has definitely suffered from years of constant headphone wearing and loud concerts. My knees creek and crackle if I even think about running. Nothing improves physically.
That's the deal. We all know it. We just try to fight it off as long as we can. Some of us go to greater extremes than others, to the point of mutilating what nature gifted us with. But that isn't an improvement. It's a cover up.
What does improve with age (or should, at least) is maturity. In most ways, not all, I've become a more understanding, learned, well-rounded person who is capable of doing more and taking on more and willing to explore more. In some ways, I'm just as short-sided and prone to stumbling as always, but these days, I'm much quicker to recognize that I'm stumbling and stop it before I fall too far down that I can't get up. I'm quicker to do something about it because I know it's going to save me a lot of grief in the end. There was a day when I'd just say, "Screw it," live the moment for all it was worth and pick up the pieces later, if I ever picked them up at all. Fun at the time. Miserable later on.
I think life (at least my own) should be lived somewhere in the middle of those places. There's something to be said for living balls out every minute of the day. Taking on every minute like it's the last. There's also something to be said for knowing this minute isn't the last. Maybe I'm mistaking maturity for responsibility. Or maybe ultimately they are the same thing. What I do know is that there's nothing wrong with being mature or responsible. It's not always fun or easy, but that doesn't make it wrong.
That's the deal. We all know it. We just try to fight it off as long as we can. Some of us go to greater extremes than others, to the point of mutilating what nature gifted us with. But that isn't an improvement. It's a cover up.
What does improve with age (or should, at least) is maturity. In most ways, not all, I've become a more understanding, learned, well-rounded person who is capable of doing more and taking on more and willing to explore more. In some ways, I'm just as short-sided and prone to stumbling as always, but these days, I'm much quicker to recognize that I'm stumbling and stop it before I fall too far down that I can't get up. I'm quicker to do something about it because I know it's going to save me a lot of grief in the end. There was a day when I'd just say, "Screw it," live the moment for all it was worth and pick up the pieces later, if I ever picked them up at all. Fun at the time. Miserable later on.
I think life (at least my own) should be lived somewhere in the middle of those places. There's something to be said for living balls out every minute of the day. Taking on every minute like it's the last. There's also something to be said for knowing this minute isn't the last. Maybe I'm mistaking maturity for responsibility. Or maybe ultimately they are the same thing. What I do know is that there's nothing wrong with being mature or responsible. It's not always fun or easy, but that doesn't make it wrong.
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