INSIGHTFUL AGING TAKES PRACTICE

Insightful aging? Oh yeah, I’ve got insight.

It’s not such a reach when you see people leaving the party way too soon.

Once you’re done, you’re done, then the question is how will you be remembered?

So how will you be remembered? How do you want to be remembered?

Most people, decent people, go for sweet and kind, hardworking and thrifty, decent and giving.

They love their momma, help their wife, and show their kids their best side.

Not everyone agrees on what ‘best side’ means.

 

Jason Kelce On All Sides

Football fans got a look at insightful aging by watching a thirty-six year old man whoop it up like only he can.

No shirt, chugging beer like Stone Cold Steve Austin, and jumping out of a luxury box window, then back in after finishing a beer.

At full roar.

Is he a crazy man? He might be, except he was at a football game watching his younger brother tear it up.

That might get anyone fired up, especially someone who knows how hard life is in the NFL.

This man is also an NFL great who takes a backseat to no-one at his position.

Watching little brother succeed where his Philadelphia Eagles had failed the week before is a reason enough to go wild?

No question about it based on video.

Standing 6’3″ and clocking 300 lbs, he had the agility to leap out of a window onto an icy surface, keep his balance, howl it up, then leap back through like the physical freak the NFL is full of.

Athletes at every age think they have something to prove.

You, me, people you’ve never heard of, answer that special challenge.

“Twenty bucks says you can’t get over that wall.”

“Do you want to give it to me now, or wait?”

Jason Kelce could do it.

 

Carrying Aging Baggage? Why

I read about a father and daughter, both professional athletes.

The daughter said she expected to out-run her dad at some point in their lives.

He’s in his 60’s, she’s in her 40’s, and she’s still waiting for him to slow down.

 

While I wake up and go straight for the coffee pot, my dad does not. Before any morning indulgence, he does 50 push-ups and 50 sit-ups. Yes — every single weekday morning.

The future is exciting. You never know what’s right around the corner. If you start thinking about everything you did in the past, you have to carry all that baggage around with you.

Dad’s advice? Try to be the best you can be, look forward, and just enjoy yourself.

Yes, there’s plenty to worry about. But maybe you don’t have to worry about everything. 

“Whatever you’re worried about today, write it down,” he said. “In a month or so, you might find that many of your small worries were insignificant.”

 

So fold your sheets anyway you want. No one’s looking.

I watched my mother in-law fold a fitted sheet so fast it looked like magic, perfectly folded magic.

She is still the best example of moving along in life that started in England, continued through Canada, Cleveland, then Los Angeles before joining her family, us, in Oregon.

A livelier woman I’ve never met, ready to go and do things and get others moving.

 

Insightful Aging Signs

Pinch the back of your hand and check how long it takes the skin to flatten back out.

The first time I noticed a change was in my twenties.

It didn’t snap back, so I stopped doing it.

Your hands may be telling you the end it near, but they are a bad example.

What are better clues?

Your brain, to start with.

Everything you do feels like you’ve done it before; everyplace you go seems to blend with everyplace you’ve been.

So why bother doing anything, or going anywhere?

Talk to a therapist about it. If they say, “That’s normal for someone your age,” find someone else.

Life isn’t meant for keeping a list of what you can’t do, then mourning the loss.

Will Jason Kelce stop jumping out of windows at his brother’s games?

Not if he’s in the right group.

Who is a fan of whipping off your shirt in the cold and drinking a beer?

I am:

How about you?

If not, why not.

Cheers to insightful aging, as long as I’ve got a warm, soft, plush, sweatshirt waiting after I cool off from carrying luggage up fifteen flights of stairs.

But Blogger D, why didn’t you take the elevator?

What? There’s an elevator?

 

Don’t Look Down On Insightful Aging

If we know one thing it’s that nothing stays the same.

It might look the same, feel the same, but it’s not the same.

Your job is to know the difference. Your job, my job, everyones’ job.

Instead of ‘same old, same old’ look for the difference.

If you can’t find the difference, you know what to do:

Rip your shirt off, cut lose with a long screamer, take another huge breath, and do it again.

Then chug a beer.

I think Jason Kelce would agree. How about Taylor Swift?

She’d agree. Being in the same room with Big J had to open new doors for her.

Why not be a difference maker?

By the way, the clock is ticking. Let’s go.