Aging

I've got a birthday coming up in a few days.  I'll turn 91!  That's old, man.  By any measure that's very old.

So how do I feel about it?  My feelings range from being grateful for my blessings to being shocked at being so old.  There has been a lot of talk about how old Biden and Trump are.  Can they handle the job?  Is their cognition going downhill?  They should get out of the way and let the next generation take over.  And so on . . .

Here I am more than ten years older than these two and doing OK, thank you very much.  I don't see any signs of mental deterioration.  I don't have the energy I had in the past, but I'm mobile and able to walk or drive OK.

Then there are the obituaries.  I scan the papers every morning and note the ages of the now departed souls.  Most are younger than I am, some by quite a bit.  So how does that make me feel?  I am conscious of facing the future with a limited time frame.  Will I be around to see who wins the next election?  Will I make it to the next World Cup?

I take nothing for granted.  I live in the present, not dwelling on the past or worrying about the future.  It is definitely one day at a time.  And I am a happy, grateful guy.