In your assessment, do you think you are aging gracefully?
Or is there some work to be done?
I had to stop and think about this question.
What does “gracefully” mean? My dictionary doesn’t have it except as an adverb of grace.
Under grace, we find words like charm, attractiveness, beauty, and ease of movement.
I’ve been on the planet longer than most, having just entered my 9th decade (P.S. – for you Las Vegas Raiders fans, that means I just turned 80 ).
Candidly, there isn’t much about aging that I would consider graceful.
Charming? I can’t think of a single person in my circle of family, friends, and acquaintances that would herald me as charming. I think Webster’s antonym would apply better: inelegant, stiff, unchangeable, nondisposable, gaseous.
Attractiveness? Yes – to my daughter’s two standard poodles. Beyond that, the ranks dwindle to, well, zero.
Beauty? Exit from the shower tells it all – it ain’t a pretty picture.
Ease of movement? Not bad for an octogenarian, but only because I take my physical health very seriously, and do serious weight training and balance exercises. Thankfully, the grandkids don’t need me on the floor with them anymore. Half of that playtime went to getting up.
Trying to match graceful and aging is too much work. I’ve decided not to try to be graceful but rather to move to the antonym side.
There’s an argument for being inelegant at this age. Most of us octogenarians have something to say that’s important. Unfortunately, it requires being inelegant to get anyone’s attention since most have sort of written us off as irrelevant based on the number.
Yeah, I’m largely unchangeable. At 80, we have all the answers, hoping that, any day now, somebody will start asking the questions.
So, I’m not going to pursue graceful. I’m choosing “audacious” as my adjective of choice and the style that I will finish out with.
I don’t think you will find much graceful in the definition of audacious:
- Extremely bold or daring
- Recklessly brave
- Fearless
- Extremely original
- Without restriction to prior ideas
- Highly inventive
- Recklessly bold in defiance of convention, propriety
- Insolent
- Brazen
- Lively
- Unrestrained
- Uninhibited
OK, I’m not all of any of those. I like to think I’m a bit of all of them. Some of the above come naturally and were built in when the universe assembled my parts.
Some are coming along nicely.
Most still need a lot of work.
“Do not go gentle into that good night.” Dylan Thomas
I’m not into poetry, but I’m all in with Dylan.
Better to make a ruckus on the way out than to go silently into the night.
More like this –
than this –
What have I got to lose?
On How To Become an “Audacious Ager”
What’s your audacious factor? Tell us about it with a comment below.
my wife and i are desert mountain hikers with several grand canyon rim to rim to rim. and one of my remainig goals is to do it at 75…and that nows means next year. wish us luck!
Never run naked through a rose garden. Beautiful and graceful requires strength, thorns, and courage to stay that way. Beautiful things protect themselves.
The biggest threat to my graceful ageing is all the dying old people and our dying old dog and my best friend. (Zoe and I have walked 21,000 miles together during the past 14 years. We will be lucky to do another two hundred). I spend 50% of my time caretaking for graceless bitter old people whose lives are only going to get much worse very quickly. I’m tired and justifiably resentful. I’m giving up my life to assure others die with dignity. The other 50% is great. For that I am incredibly grateful. So, maturity would dictate that I just keep quiet since very few people can claim half of their lives are simply fine. Half the trick is to be OK with our own feelings, both good and bad. So now I’m out to the pool for my 2-mile morning swim. I swim from 55F to 85F, and all temperatures are wonderful. Simply different. Nice
Gary, Beside your list : ‘audacious’, you are also unconventional! as in ” boldness, and courage,” and often gets applied in situations where someone does something pretty unusual, like: like: like:…..WOW!
🚀 ‘ becoming an astronaut and going to the moon ‘. hopefully next month one going to be ready out of FL. ( two were just scrubbed ) Go as the most aldermen? I bet you never thought to put that one on your list. If you’re skipping on it this time, please ‘choose another adjective of choice and the style that you will finish out with. but a bit less ‘audacious’ meaning this time.