CAN I do this?

Getting old.
Less strength in the muscles.
Less mental acuity.
Tires more quickly.
Kinda stinks.

So you try to do a job involving physical labor. CAN you do it? You know you can do it. You used to be able to do it. You should be in good enough shape now that --of course-- you can do it. So you go for it! It is struggle. It is work. But you accomplish the task. See? You know you could do it!

Then the next day is the back pain. And the sore muscles. And days and days of back pain. And you end up making several trips to the chiropractor to get straightened out and interrupt the cycle of pain. And life is good again.

So... CAN you do it if the work (roofing the house, rebuilding the deck, dismantling the pool, running the marathon, carrying the salt for the water softener, whatever it may be) has repercussions that it shouldn't have? Hmmm. How do you decide when you CAN or CAN'T?



You know what else I think? I think our system of doing school just exacerbates this problem. We lock kids up with their age-mates from the time they're 3 until they're 20-something. We seldom saw our parents and grandparents struggling with aging. We were too busy with kids our own age.... kids who were immortal like us. (LOL!) So now we baby-boomers and baby-busters are shocked when we have to face the fact that our bodies can't do what they used to do. Hey, this stinks! It's not fair! I want to be young, strong, and immortal again! :-)

And then, I've got all these friends who are 10 or 20 or 30 years older, and they keep telling me, "You just WAIT. You ain't seen nothing yet." LOL -- oh, lovvvvvely!

Now, if only the mind wouldn't FAIL too recall the fact that my body couldn't handle this job last time, and it's not likely to be able to handle the job this time either. But no, the mind is goin' too....