Simon and Garfunkel had a song called “Old Friends”, that has the line: “How terribly strange to be seventy.”<\/p>\n
I’m not 70 yet, but I did turn 60 today, and I have to say that it is terribly strange.<\/p>\n
How different 60 looks from this perspective than it did when I was a youngster (under 30). Back then, even 40 was old and 60 was ancient. But I don’t feel old! I feel the same as I did when I was 25!<\/p>\n
Or do I? My recent cataract surgery made me aware of how changes that creep up on you can go undetected. I was astonished after surgery when suddenly I could see everything so clearly. My vision had faded so slowly over the years that I didn’t realize how much I had lost.<\/p>\n
Have my other capabilities and senses faded the same way, so slowly that I have not been aware of the changes? If I could suddenly run, or jump, or work or think or remember as well as I could at 25, would I be just as amazed?<\/p>\n
Probably. Undoubtedly. But I can also remember back to my youth and be sure that I am much more content now than I was then. The angst of high school and the slow growth of self-confidence and “comfort in my own skin” over the years is one of the changes of aging that I am aware of and do not regret. Wisdom is a hard thing to define, but the years of experience that wear us down also teach us how the world works and help us make better decisions. Physically and mentally I know that I am in a slow decline that will continue as long as I live. But fortunately, along with the decline is a growing understanding and acceptance of the world and the inevitability of my arc through it.<\/p>\n
OK, I’m 60 and it’s terribly strange. But it’s not bad!<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Simon and Garfunkel had a song called “Old Friends”, that has the line: “How terribly strange to be seventy.” I’m not 70 yet, but I did turn 60 today, and I have to say that it is terribly strange. How different 60 looks from this perspective than it did when I was a youngster (under […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[4],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-280","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-family-updates"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/daryllafferty.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/280","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/daryllafferty.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/daryllafferty.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/daryllafferty.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/daryllafferty.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=280"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/daryllafferty.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/280\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/daryllafferty.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=280"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/daryllafferty.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=280"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/daryllafferty.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=280"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}