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You and I Are Too Old To Hang On To Dusty, Decrepit Old Versions of Ourselves
Too Old for This Sh*t: How to Take Your Life Back from an Ageist Society
Our gym at the Y is starting to empty out. All those eager folks have gotten a taste of just how challenging it is to be there before dawn.
It’s not for everyone.
Perhaps the saddest sight, for me, is to watch fellow older folks show up, full of good intentions, then swiftly give up.
Too often, the older men will pick up weights that corresponded with the man they were forty years ago. The reality of a 35-lb dumbbell is a shock if you haven’t lifted anything heavier than a beer since you were 30.
It can be hugely embarrassing to our delicate egos to try to sling that kind of iron only to find that you have to put them down on the first try, and then head for the kiddie weights.
For women, it’s worse, because of how society judges us. They swiftly realize how difficult it is to do what that Pretty Young Thing over there is doing.
Then they look at themselves and don’t see that PYT they once were, and give up. I most assuredly understand the feeling.
The younger, stronger versions of those people have left the room years ago. Yet so often that’s the person we most closely identify with, not the one we are today.
My younger (not stronger) version of me has been gone for decades. The older and stronger version is the one I get to inhabit today.
The person we are today needs our full attention and commitment. Our love and respect. Our mercy, if you will, for having changed, evolved, and aged.
Let’s deal with the people we are right here, right now.
Without judgment, please.
Eight years ago I was in fitness model shape. At the time I had no idea that I was also about to have a lovely time with kidney stones and a garden variety of other issues, and about to start a long, painful journey of some twelve major…