Today I’m growing old, but feeling young! How often I meet people who fight the fact they are growing old.Old age is a gift. I am now, probably for the first time in my life, the person I have always wanted to be. Oh, not my body! I sometimes despair over my body – but I don’t agonize over it for long.
I would never exchange my old friends, my wonderful life, my loving wife and family for less gray hair or a flatter belly. As I’ve aged, I’ve become my own friend. I don’t get angry with myself for eating less, because others wonder why I don’t have that chicken piece or paneer. I feel I am entitled to undereat, or not eat at all. Whose business is it if I choose to watch a movie till late at night? I listen to those wonderful tunes of the 60’s and 70’s, and if at the same time I remember a lost love, I weep for that sorrowful time. I know I am sometimes forgetful. But there again, some of life is just as well forgotten – and I eventually remember the important things.
Sure, over the years my heart has been broken. How can your heart not break when you lose a friend or a parent? But broken hearts are what give us strength and understanding and compassion. A heart never broken is pristine and sterile and will never know the joy of being imperfect!
As you get older, you care less about what other people think. I don’t question myself anymore. I’ve even earned the right to be wrong.’
I like being old. It has set me free. I like the person I have become. I am not going to live forever, but while I am still here, I will not waste time lamenting what could have been, or worrying about what will be. For the first time in my life, I don’t have to have a reason to do the things I want to do. If I want to look at old photos all day, lie on the couch and watch Netflix serials for hours or don’t want to go to the mall or a movie, I have earned that right. I can be a bit selfish without feeling guilty.’
I sometimes feel sorry for the young. They face a far different world than I knew growing up, where we feared the law, respected the old, the flag, our country. I never felt the need to use filthy language in order to express myself, I read in today’s paper it’s become common these days.
I am grateful to have been born when I was, moment of my growing old!
Now, why ever would I post such a column today, unless I’m still feeling young while growing old…! —bobsbanter@gmail.com
