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.