How strange it is to speak with contemporaries (persons of the same age) and find that virtually all agree we are not nearly as old as our predecessors of the same age. Sadly, when we compare pictures, we realize we are them! Age is a cruel thing when it comes to our physical appearance and abilities. It is, however, rather kind to our temperament and our patience and our overall ability to see life for what it is. The idea of living forever is somewhat diminished by seeing the frailty of life and the potential for ending with so little a thing as a blocked artery, an accident, or a tiny tumor. These bodies we were given simply do not support the "live forever" ideals we possessed as younger persons. We become both introspective and retrospective at once. We look back at experiences and situations with almost blinded fond memories- easily erasing pains and tribulations-and recalling the good and pleasant experiences at any given point in life. Even without alzheimers or other forms of dementia we are able to recall past times shrouded in a fog blinded to the moments of discord and unpleasantries. What a welcome thing that is as compared to spending one's life consumed with bitterness and regret for things past- most often things over which we had no control. Just as feeling a certain level of joy looking at pictures from our past, we can close our eyes, remember, and once again enjoy the moments or times when life was as we hoped and imagined. We have all been,at times, within our own minds, both on top of the world and as downtrodden as anyone who ever lived. Yet, as we age, we realize that many of the things that plagued our minds were of no importance in the true scope of life. We have fretted, worried, and stressed over so many things in our lives that ultimately become trivial, that we look back and wonder how we might have dwelt on such insignificant circumstances.
We do age. We do get older just as generations before us have done and this life will end just as it has for millions of people. We are blessed with the ability to remember and what a blessed thing that is.
