“Not Ready For the Pasture”

Last week’s column about getting older has resulted in several folks making comments and observations to me. After a while all the talk of getting older was beginning to make me feel….old.

One commented that most of their conversations are about doctors, hospitals and medication. Another told me that if it weren’t for their doctors appointments they would rarely leave the house. Then I was surfing the TV channels one night and saw a program on aging. Talk about depressing. If watching a program on aging doesn’t take a year or two off your life, nothing will.

It began to occur to me that talking about being old and thinking about being old just makes me feel even older. While being 50 doesn’t qualify me as a spring chicken, being 50 isn’t nearly as old as it used to be. I can remember when I was a teenager a fellow told me he was 28. I thought to myself “man is he old.” It doesn’t seem like that many years ago to me that someone being 40 or 50 was a clear sign that they probably already had all their funeral arrangements laid out. Not so anymore. Now being 50 just means I’m a seasoned veteran. I’m just getting broke in. Heck, even 60 don’t sound that old anymore.

I’m told that two good ways to avoid “getting old” is to stay physically active and watch your diet. I’ve got the physically active part down pretty good. I jog 3 miles at least 3-4 times a week. I trained several months getting ready for my Freedom Springs triathlon back in July. I still love to canoe, kayak and swim as a way to enjoy the outdoors and get some exercise. Next week I’ll be heading to the mountains of North Carolina and I’m sure I’ll take in a few hiking trails and do some whitewater rafting.

I’ll confess my diet needs a lot of improvement. I have an absolute love affair with food, and most of it is unhealthly. Is there anything better than a thick juicy bacon cheeseburger? I love just about anything that is fried, potato chips are still the #1 snack food and a 9 pm bed time snack always sounds good to me.

But diet aside, I am trying to think young so that I don’t get too old too quick. There are still a lot of things I want to do in life. And many of them are going to require that I be physically, and mentally, up to the challenge.

So while I can’t do anything to stop getting older in years, I can do something to stay physically fit and young in mind. Because, Simply Put, I’m not ready just yet to be put out to pasture.



From the Front Porch: Uncle Bob said his cousin quit school in the 10th grade because of pneumonia. Not because he had it, but because he couldn’t spell it.