The "fat and uglies"

I had a good friend, one of those who died last year, who would say she was having "one of those fat and ugly" days. She was neither fat nor ugly but I knew what she meant - [after all :-) we were both psychologists.]

Thought of her the other day - probably as I have an old medicine bottle she once gave me and I was dusting it...

I passed the 1/2 year mark recently and I've begun to think I have had some of "those unfit and old" days. I'm not unfit but I might be "old." How do I or we define old? I'm teaching a lifespan class this summer and it's been fun to hear what students label "old" - but even their definitions have changed as they have read thru the text.

Are you only as old as you feel? or act? And if so, that can change every day or even a few times a day. Or do we take the average or the median as a measure? I don't know - but I sure know we don't take the "real number" - just as in the good old days - we never were really fat and ugly.....

Birthdays

I have a birthday coming up this month...funny, but birthdays have no real meaning anymore. I think once you hit a certain age - and I am not sure which it is - only birthdays with 5's or 0's at the end seem to have meaning..

Does that mean we think in 5 years cycles as we age? Or is it that "others" use those number markers to keep track of where we are. I'm an age now I once thought was "old" but that's true of most ages. When I was really young I thought 25 or 30 was ancient. When a friend was here recently and were we skiing - I asked if we would still be skiing when we were old. Neither of us thought that was an odd question :)

Growing older better may mean we forget about the number we are and keep on keeping on - doing what we do!

So - keep on keeping on!!!