As I was doing my usual morning routine of wash face, put on lotions, etc, I was thinking about the things that change as you approach and then pass 60, at least if you are female. I have no basis of reference for what happens as a male.
Prior to 60, you start growing hairs where hairs never before grew: at the edges of your upper lip, on your chin. As you pass 60, they also grow under your chin, where they're very hard to find with a tweezers. But OH MY when you find them, and see how long they are? Mortifying.
Somewhere around 60, you start to realize that it's not just the hairs on top of your head that are turning gray. It's private hair. It's the hair in your eyebrows, so that you look as though you are missing patches there.
If you are lucky enough to weigh a semi "normal" weight, your hands start to look like old lady hands with one or more misshapen fingers. I have three: my right index finger tips off to the left at the last joint, and both pinkies, which have always been a little crooked--it's genetic-- now look like matching new moons, with the added bonus of oversized last joints.
The wrinkles. Ah, the wrinkles. I don't know about anyone else. But mine started in my 30's. I kept them at bay, a little, with lotions and potions. And they're still not terrible. But up close, I have them everywhere. And jowls. And the aforementioned eyebrows are closer to my eyes than they used to be. Luckily, they are slightly hidden by my glasses' frames. Which, unfortunately, hold glasses without anti glare, by doctor's orders, so that I need to take them off for photos, or risk blinding the photographer.
Ah. What else? Hip joints that really, really do not like being in a squat for very long, not even long enough to pull a few weeds.
It's not that any of these is debilitating. Or that I cannot do, pretty much, whatever the heck I want to on most days. It's just that the combination of all of them makes me truly realize, even more than having a Medicare card, that OLD is really coming.
That I WILL be a little old lady. So, I need to start working now to define that for myself, before it defines itself for me.
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