I’m beginning to shift my perspective on aging. This morning I was reading a blurb on Nora Ephron’s new book of essays I Remember NOTHING and Other Reflections. From chapter “The O Word” she describes some of her reflections on growing OLD: “I’m 69 years old. Let’s pretend I make it to 80. Of those 10 years, five are going to suck. That’s what nobody says.”
When Woody Allen was recently asked “How do you feel about the aging process?”, his response was: ”Well, I’m against it. I think it has nothing to recommend it. You don’t gain any wisdom as the years go by. You fall apart, is what happens. People try and put a nice varnish on it, and say, well, you mellow. You come to understand life and accept things. But you’d trade all of that for being 35 again.”
In all my years of serving elderly clients, I have never known anyone to embrace the big W word (wisdom) to assuage their longevity in years. It is drudgery to stay on top of a body that is breaking down inside and out. More of one’s time is taken up by medical appointments, ailments, pain – in the joints, the muscles, the organs…and, then, there is bingo! My early idealism of growing into a wise old age was naive. I don’t discount wisdom and old-age. I think it is just overrated. And, as Nora Ephron writes: “…that’s what nobody says.“
I want to be real about gett’n old and that’s wisdom. Bingo is out.
