I celebrated my 81st birthday recently, and the event caused me to realize that I am actually an old man. Do I now start acting like one? Shall my body posture reflect my age, shall I stoop over appropriately and buy a gnarled cane? When I prepare for work in the morning and stand before the mirror, I realize that I am actually looking at the reflection of an old man. Yet, until very recently, I had never thought of myself as an old man. I haven’t felt like an old man; I still have a bounce in my step and still look forward to each day at the office. Does the human mind look for cues or standard “life markers” that tell us when we should begin to change our behavior based on those markers? Those cues or markers may be represented by almost anything, such as reaching a certain age in life, Having fallen and now have a hitch in ones “get along,” recognizing wrinkles in one’s face, the loss of hair or the graying or whitening of it, even hearing other’s remark about our age. Must we look for various designated points or landmarks in our life that signals our biorhythms to begin a new routine or to adopt a new roll, a new way to act and to look?
I would rather think that changes in our looks, our behavior, our self appreciation is all a natural process. On the other hand, having some formal knowledge of human behavior, I know that the human mind can influence our behavior both negatively and positively. We can talk ourselves into most anything, even becoming old long before our age would allow. The most common form of that type of self direction is the hypochondriac. They can be just as sick as they want to be—too, maybe we can be just as old as we want to be.
The converse of that is, of course, the optimistic and positive thinking approach where I can be just as well as I want to be or just as young as I want to be (within limits). People who have convinced themselves that they are old at sixty may very well die in their sixties. However, those who have a positive view of life and a healthy attitude about it are not old until they are in their eighties or even nineties They talk themselves into health and life and find purpose in every day they live.
I love what Susan Gale said: “Life is unpredictable. Love may arrive when it’s least expected. Laughter may occur at any moment and tears may fall without warning. Happiness may be around the corner or sadness over the next hill. Embrace every moment and every emotion. Your life is unique and it’s a journey that only you can travel.”
Physical, mental, and, I might add, spiritual activities are what make us feel alive. When we can find no reason, or have no desire to be active physically and/or mentally, we have no reason to get up in the morning and no reason to move—no reason to live. I have written before about a “purpose-driven life” and that having or finding a purpose to act is what keeps our minds active and our bodies moving. It’s what keeps us alive and it even affects our feelings of wellness (our health).
When we no longer have a job to go to, it doesn’t mean that we can’t go to a job. There are hundreds of meaningful, productive, and valuable activities that can take the place of a job. I recently retired from being the Director of the FamilySearch Library at 81 years of age. I felt like I had contributed to its growth and that now it was time for another to carry on. If I thought that I would now just lay back and start deteriorating, I would volunteer full time at the library. No! I am not ready for that, but I am ready to do some other things with my life besides research my family.
That will always be a part of my “day to day,” but now I will add oil painting and continue to write as I am moved upon to do so.
However, it is true, and though I am not happy to admit it, I do in fact feel older than I have ever felt before, and there are some life’s markers I am aware of. However, I am going to be cognisant of them and try to influence them more than they influence me, if I can. God bless us all to be productive beings to the day we die.