Aging is Nuts
The lumpier the body, the smoother the mind.
At forty, I peaked.
“What’s all the hype?” I asked. “A lot happens to your body between forty and forty-three,” my sister-in-law said.
I’m forty-five, and a lot, yes a lot has happened. The descent has begun. Aging my appearance, I get a picture of what I'll look like as the years pile on. It's grim.
But my mind is so much more beautiful. There’s an architect and builder working in my brain daily. My neural pathways experience less traffic, the highways are smoother, and the views are vast.
A road roller flattens the wrinkles in my mind and deposits them on my skin. I wish it would find a better spot.
The sun has kissed my body raw. My skin, sprinkled with brown and white freckles, looks like cinnamon and powdered sugar but doesn't taste as good. It's crepey and begging for moisture.
There's a hair bandit that steals follicles from one area and drops them like dandelion seeds in another. "What the fuck is this doing here?” I mumble. The bandit is already gone.
"You don't think your stomach will do this," my mom would say, pointing at hers. Then one day, it does." She's fucking right! Mine is doing that.
For those who aren’t there yet (by the way, “there” moves daily), with age, the body declines and the mind inclines. It’s universal, which is comforting. But it's not that simple. The mental mind declines too, albeit slowly. It's the emotional mind that grows. The soul becomes peaceful. And peace is one of the greatest feelings in the world.
I wouldn't change this cause and effect for the world. A wiser me is a happier me. But, if you offered me my thirty-year-old body with my forty-five-year-old mind, I'd accept.
At the time of writing, I have not injected my face with anything but food. But I have a quote in my inbox for upper and lower eye work. I'm waiting to schedule the surgery until $10,000 falls from the sky. Any day now…
I'm targeting the eyes for my aging strategy. Believe it or not, this logic applies elsewhere. Options become distractions. Choose something and go after it. Apply to the one company you want to work for and hit it hard. Follow one thought leader for six months. Get surgery on your eyes and leave the rest alone. I don't want to be an expert in anti-aging. So, I pick a direction, streamline my energy, and move on.
The older I am, the more I know and the less time I have to use what I know.
What took us two years when we were younger, may take us two months as an adult—like getting to know someone. What took us two months when we were younger, may take us two years as an adult—like learning new software. It's bananas. Both difficult and wonderful.
Another thing: Ten years from now, I’ll look back on the way I look now and wish I could have seen myself the way I see myself now. A young buck. And so it goes until death. Always younger then, never now. Yet another reason to embrace the present and fail at doing so.
Yes, I struggle with an aging body. Yet the tranquility of a smooth mind almost makes it worthwhile. Almost. What’s on the outside may not look as good, but what’s on the inside is so much better.
It’s nuts.