Getting Old Sucks

 

                                                        Reflections / watercolor A McLaughlin

    Time erodes everything, things fall apart, in thermodynamics it's called entropy. After a recent bout of illness I looked in the mirror and was shocked by what I saw. Pale sagging skin, dark lines under my eyes, grey hair emerging from limp dingy hair. For the first time in 63 years I felt old. What happened?

    I recently read a memoir by actor Jennifer Grey- who is the same age- and despite her abundant use of drugs, alcohol and severe injury -she looks great. The same goes for Madonna, Kathy Griffin and Donny Osmond, also about the same age, but much better preserved. Celebrity seems to have had an ageless effect on them. I'm certain given his supposedly virtuous upbringing Osmond hasn't consorted with the devil but I'll bet there is a portrait of him in a closet somewhere that looks like the rest of us-worn out, wrinkled and maybe bald.

    I've resigned my appearance to genetics, some people ripen with age and some people rot regardless of their lifestyle. When we were young there was a first time for everything when we're old there will be a last time too. Driving a car, doing your own shopping, getting dressed or bathe without assistance.

   I deal with arthritis in the hips and knees -no more aikido, I can barely get up off the mat. I hunt around for reading glasses, watch my balance getting on and off the bike, and strain to hear what people say.

    I neglected daily body maintenance at a price. I never expected to live this long as the clichè goes and didn't count on fading so fast.

    My advice: live fast, die young and leave a pretty corpse. Either that or  find out what the hell Madonna is drinking.