Like Déjà vu all over again.
One of my most favorite jobs was coaching a high school team. It was a swim team in the middle of an island named Manhattan. The team members possessed a wide disparity of talents, but they all shared one thing in common, adolescence.
I felt it was a privilege to work with these kids. They were all coping with the dramatic changes forced on them by adolescence - excessive skin oils, excessive hormones, and excessive imaginations. But once they realized that they were supposed to be miserable, they adapted well and thrashed that water with a persistence and energy that I both respected and admired.
I think about them now, because I am back into adolescence, only this time it is in reverse. It has a different name, senescence, but the essentials are still the same, i.e. a wide variety of physical and emotional change over which you have little or no control. Rather than too much skin oil, there is too little. There are more hormones in the memory than in the blood. It is still frustrating, however, “to supposed to be miserable”. Why can’t change be easier? I sound like a typical senescent.
The changes are subtle at first. Your grip isn’t as strong. Your memory isn’t as sharp. Your response isn’t as quick. Your attitude isn’t as positive.
But with these changes comes a new sense of vision. You are not as vexed by picayune rules. Forgiveness becomes a more accessible option. The “Joneses” have moved, so there is no need to keep up. That rare essence of true (selfless) love becomes a more familiar scent. The sense of daily striving is modulated by a sense of meaningful peace.
There were so many of life’s realities we had to learn during adolescence. There is so much wisdom we have to garner during senescence.
Don’t fight the ride, roll with it. Thrash that water!
N. B. Click below to make a comment. If you would prefer to make an enhancement to the original article, please go to wikiSenior.com and click on edit.