t 72 – “you can’t teach an old dog new tricks” – or can you?A
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Balance, blood pressure, seeing, and peeing; all driven by signals from the brain; and not by my controlling self – all need some attention. (I omit that other most intimate of activities that relies on the brain for performance, because you already know, old people “just don’t do it” anyway.)
The daily remedies just add to my already busy schedule. Doctor, podiatrist, osteopath, optician, and guru all play their parts. I’m practising standing on one leg concentrating on my core to regain youthful balance; meditation has become a daily ritual that I’m finding restful, and hopefully calming for the old spikes in my labile blood pressure; a trial of bifocals for computer and reading may delay a replacement of my 23 year old corneal transplant; and a little ‘re-bore’ of my prostate by laser last month should have me giving the old race horses a run for their money.
All this before I take off again to a wedding in California in a few weeks’ time.
And in this week that we commemorate the commencement of World War I, I take from the Ode of Remembrance: ‘Age shall not weary them, nor the years condemn’
I intend to keep on keeping on for as long as my old legs (and eyes) will let me! You can look forward to a lot more of reading about my travels to exciting places, stories, photographs and of course pictures of what I had for dinner yesterday.
The great secret that all old people share is that you really haven’t changed in seventy or eighty years. Your body changes, but you don’t change at all. And that, of course, causes great confusion.Anyone who stops learning is old, whether at twenty or eighty. Anyone who keeps learning stays young. The greatest thing in life is to keep your mind young.
Sage advice from such a young man, Iqbal. Thank you. I worked with a much older Pakistani, a Mullah, who always impressed on me as I (the ‘young Turk’) was trying to get him to accept new ways by saying simply, ‘Old is Gold” (and a nice way of telling me that he knew better; he was very happy and would continue along the path of his own choosing; with his years giving him this right).
Lovely! 🙂
Such a frank and revealing post from you dear brother. I hope all ailments are soon behind you.
Ailments, dear Sister? Nah! Just maintenance to keep me humming along – doing till I die!