What's in a word: OLD

I see the word old, and I downright don't like it! I look at the acronym and I say

O is for OOPS..

L is for too Late

D is for the expletive I can't write, so I'll just say it's not ducky!

All right! So what category do I fit in? I look in the mirror, and I see a few lines, not too many, a couple spaces between my teeth, a few more red spots, I guess those are genetic links to my mother, a tad more thin skin so when I bump myself everyone knows it, and a varicose veined leg which looks as if it has been pathetically tattooed. Now, on the other hand, the skin is smooth, the teeth are straight, I can walk fast enough to keep up with my four year old, use a personal trainer to keep my slightly rounded body in better shape, and my mind is free so far of the cobwebs. I know this looks as if I ‘m competing for a compliment,. Please……go right ahead.

Now, the words I use today more often is "save face", but that more correctly means, "please lord, no extra lines". I’m not looking for surgery.

'Give me a hand', probably has been more commonly used in my toddler’s ballet class when I bend down to tie her shoe. While they are all applauding her, someone is helping my somewhat overstuffed body from the floor. No more hands free.

'Giving lip service', is more about drawing a line around my lip to define it.

And 'standing up for myself' probably means someone has to help me assume a vertical position.

Age is a funny concept, I think. In some cultures, growing “old” is a sign of status, and is revered. Our culture treats it closely to the legal term considered to be an adult. As a matter of fact I looked up the word in the thesaurus and it states “condition of having lived many years. So now I know what is wrong with the baby boomers, we all have a condition…

Now the thing I am trying to figure about my condition, is it in the early, neophyte stages, or is it in the late stages. Is this aging condition permanent? By that, I mean, am I able to restore that state of being young. And the answer is a strong, “no’ and I’m not about to try.

What I have been able to do is to become enlightened through the gift of our grandchild. For a decade, I wondered what the passage to the next phase in life would look like. The picture was a different one which was painted in my imagination, of course. It included all the trips and material things that were collected and sorted out, and divided among family members. It included a review of all of our lives in the family as well…rehashed and rehashed. Don’t get me wrong, I loved going through pictures, ad nausea, but at some point, the life cycle is the reason I think we are on earth. The move from birth, life, death, and life again.

And that’s where our four year old reshaped our future expectation, and redefined "older" from those nasty synonyms for aged, elderly , mature, getting on and you’re not getting any younger any more!

Fancy that!

When you feel young at heart, but you don’t fall into young, or ancient, and you realize that you have responded to every crisis there is, from the energy crisis, to the recession, to the care of the elderly parent, to the care of your children’s children, you still perform all of the roles more than exemplary. I figure these are the real passages in life:


Stage one: Young /fresh
Stage two: Early inexperienced/novice, early bloom
Stage three: Middle/ heart
Stage four : Rolling/ middle that’s us! Still rolling with much experience, quite vital, and rejuvenated

Stage five: Blossoming veterans who will continue to bloom through generations to come.

At any one of these stages, where we chance stepping into the joy of granny mom… or pop, I think the traditional concept of aging defies itself. The child gives you a belly laugh, and you don’t even give a thought to big your belly is!
It’s just that that child knows how big your heart is.