Ageing – a unique adventure
THE YEAR 2023 is now behind us and I found myself thinking: A year has passed, I have lived to see another. How did I get here so quickly? It was only yesterday that I had achieved my first real objective in life and that was to reach age 21 and be regarded as an adult, a person responsible for making their own decisions!
Decisions in those days related more to moving out of your parents’ house, having an enormous amount of fun, getting a job, buying your first car, partying to the max with no care for the toll it all took on the body. As the typical youth, you feel you can do all things and survive, you are indestructible. Thoughts of marriage, pension and death were not the focal points in any way imaginable.
READY TO SETTLE DOWN
By the time I had reached my early 30s, the thought process had changed without me even noticing it. I remember my mother saying to my father, in my presence, ‘the boy seems to be ready to settle down now!’ On reflection, it seemed that I must have begun to display some degree of responsibility having brought a young lady home and introduced her to my parents. Notwithstanding, I still felt, in my mind, that I was still that young man full of life and adventure with little thought of what the future would be like.
Then the thunderbolt exploded! We only have one life to live, and you must choose how you wish to live it. With any choice made comes responsibilities and these responsibilities are not about you alone but others. Marriage, family, job solidification, neighbourhood/ community integration, in general playing your part for the betterment of society.
Before I realised it, I was now a senior citizen, having raised a family and seen the children leave the proverbial ‘nest’ to start where I had begun, only yesterday!
Life is indeed a cycle. Here I am having a new experience. I had accepted, somewhere in my 40s, that people will age, some gracefully and others not so gracefully. What I had heard of from older folk and not paid any attention to, was the sudden onset of pain. Pain in places that I never imagined would pain. Voltaren, Tiger Balm, cold packs and all the other rubs/treatments are now regular household items kept close at hand, reminiscent of my younger days when recovering from a sports injury. The difference is that these pains have nothing to do with sports! They are a natural part of the ageing process. Then there is the pain associated with a loss of memory and the dependence on a diary or notes ... very depressing!
THE ‘ARTFUL DODGERS’
Now I am obliged to speak about some of my close friends who are still of the view that they must maintain their youthful appearance. You will not see any sign of grey hairs on any of their heads or in a beard – they have become masters at the art of dyeing! These are the ‘artful dodgers’ in my mind as they try to hide their reality from others but merely succeed in denying themselves the privilege of ageing gracefully. I pity them because they can never walk in the rain!
On that note, I think that wisdom has replaced the youthful care-free mentality and I note with pride that I can now shelve some of the burdens of responsibility to the children, the younger generation. It was then that I realised that my parents had done the same thing to me, and it started with those words, ‘the boy seems to be ready to settle down now’. Of my three, one has settled down and two are still in adventure mode!
Ageing has caused me to become a more mature, caring, responsible, God-fearing human being. One accepts that death is inevitable. The pace of life is not as fast as it once was because one has become much older and wiser. I have grown to be thankful for every morning that I open my eyes to welcome the new day. Parties have been replaced by funerals, more frequent socialising among close friends and close conversations with our maker.
The adventure of ageing has come full circle, I have grown accustomed to the pains – that is life!