Just a report from an old person

For the record, I am a male, age 63, and presently live on the Cumberland Plateau in east Tennessee. I moved here from Atlanta to an old Family place. And my father introduced me to the idea of reporting what is happening to my body as I age. As a Rambling Wreck engineer from GaTech, I also use the engineering approach, which is sort of scientific, too. My favorite movies are mostly from my youth and younger years, like "The Searchers", "Jeremiah Johnson", "The Outlaw Josey Wales", and even later "The Sand Pebbles". I also like some more modern movies, mostly directed by Lasse Hallstrom, a Swede. The "Cider House Rules", "An Unfinished Life", and even "Dear John" come to mind.

For me, I would report in two ways, since both affect me. One is the physical side of things, and the other is the mental side of things.

First, the physical side of things. I have run a bunch of marathons, like 17, but that pales by my belief back then that until about age 55, it was my life style getting me down; after that age kicked in. Add to that idea is that the hormone testosterone production is probably declining over time in my body, and now I am not as strong at age 63 than I want to be. This hurts my feelings. That is my observation today. Plus my time to heal from simple injuries is not what it used to be. While I do heal, it generally takes longer.

Second is the mental type of things. My last time in Okinawa (about 25 years ago) during a HASH run, a gal from MIT, serving as a Marine aviation supply officer, asked me the old joke about did I know what a "nooner" was. Well, of course I did, but then she said something like "it was a cup of soup and a nap", and that appealed to me as much as it hurt my feelings, too. Later she asked me "if I lived in menopause manor", which also hurt my feelings. Of course, I did live there, and was happy to be there.

One more mental type of thing I have thought about a lot, and tried to analyze the best I can. The subject is motivation.

I can report, for me, that the repeating of normal human things, like parental type things, is getting tiresome. I think I am becoming more "tough love", which I define as brutal honesty. Now in this case, some may listen, and some may not, but mentally I can accept the results more I could decades ago.

So, and last, I always heard that old people like me always wish they could impart their experience to their younger people growing up. I think now, again mentally, that most younger people don't want to listen, and such is the nature of humanity and history.