A Landmark

[poliphilo]

I passed a landmark on Monday. Our keep fit instuctor- who is 42 by the way- referred to me- without meaning it as a joke or a jokey insult or anything but a statement of fact- as an old person.

I have just turned 58.

I caught a glimpse of the back of my head in the gents at the Imperial War Museum on Tuesday.  My bald spot is getting to be one of my defining features. I'm as bald as Rudolph Hess was when he sat for Dame Laura Knight at Nuremburg.

Age is partly in the mind. My mother- at 87- isn't old.  Unlike me she can get down on her knees and up again without a whole lot of theatrical groaning.

Some people embrace old age- with its dubious privileges- as early as they can. Evelyn Waugh for instance. A friend of his reported that he seemed to age a decade with every year. We're never told exactly how old Waugh's avatar Pinfold is, but his fixity of mind, his crankiness, his physical wonkiness suggest that he must be at least 60- perhaps pushing 70- and it comes as something of a shock to learn that Waugh himself went through his Pinfold experience at 50.

Which is sillier- to pose as a crotchety old cuss before your time- or to be gulled into spending lots of money on anti-ageing creams, facelifts and the like?

I try to be realistic.  Getting old is an experience like any other.  Things happen to older people that don't happen to younger ones. I am determined to find it interesting...

Comments

[idahoswede.livejournal.com]

I am nearly a year older than you. I don't mess with creams and such, although I do keep my skin moisturised. I play what I call the age card selectively. It's wonderful when you don't want to do something - "Leave me alone, I'm old!" And I definitely notice my body not wanting to be as spry as my mind still is (I envy your mother, my knees sound like fireworks first thing in the morning). But I do think that, at least in my mind, I will always be somewhere around 36, that age chosen because it was the time I decided I was not going to buy into either the eternal youth mystique or the aging because the numbers say you must routine.

[poliphilo.livejournal.com]

There are definitely advantages to getting old.

One of them is that (if you've been paying attention) you're a lot less easy to fool. I guess one word for this is "wisdom".

36 is a good age. I was in my mid thirties when I decided to stop going with the flow and put my life in order.