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Aging - good or bad?

MysticSang'ha

Big Squishy Hugger
Premium Member
I'm reminded of my age when I get a knee injury so easily. Last night in rehearsal, I was demonstrating a common bend of the knee to spring up and to the side, and I felt my right knee "grab". It didn't hurt, so I kept working with the dancers. Then when I was walking toward the sound system, it twisted and gave out unexpectedly.

I went home and looked at the knee and saw redness and swelling. The redness had me worried since there might be blood in the knee. Soooooo........

Worst case scenario - it's a meniscus tear. I've had them before, and they suck. Depending on the severity of the tear, I could be out of much physical activity from 2 weeks to 6 months if surgery is needed.

Best case scenario - it's just inflammation and I can be back to my normal physical activity in a few days.

That's just what I remember from past injuries from dancing. If it continues to swell and make me immobile for the most part, I need to see a doctor.

Now, relating to the thread title, I've known for a little bit that the knees are always the first to go on a dancer. I'd accepted that as happening "someday", and that it'll be time for me to reduce my time on stage or to change my activity toward something my knees will handle. But that was when I was still leaping, twisting, spinning, reaching to the stars, extending my legs to forever.....not when I'm sitting with a swollen knee after a simple knee bend.

The reality of my age in my field is hitting me. Most professional dancers retire by 35. I'm 40, and even if the injury isn't serious, the perspective has shifted from an everlasting youthfulness, endurance, and mobility to the reality that this will end. Slowly but surely, this will end.

I will submit that aging for me isn't necessarily good OR bad. It just is. My profession has been shifting from the one leaping and bouncing around on stage to the mentor, the coach, and the one opening the doors for the next generation of performers. Although I have done many shows, there are a few that I never did that I wanted to. But instead of lamenting what "could" have been, I can look back and say that it simply "was."

It's been part of my mark in this lifetime, and truth be told the story isn't done yet. There's more I can do, however that looks, to creating magic on the stage.

.

.

.

For you, what does aging mean to you? Do you fear it? Do you embrace it? Do you simply observe?

IOW, how do you cope?
 

Drolefille

PolyPanGeekGirl
I try to embrace it. It's silly but I've always thought of this care bear's song
[youtube]2y0VpI6HT-k[/youtube]
Care bears growing up - YouTube

It's more about the growing up part of aging, but it works for me for a lifetime too. It's all growth, even the bad, aching parts. I'm young still, but I try to embrace the fact that life will go on and eventually end. It's how life works, and trying to fight it is denying reality.
 

Sunstone

De Diablo Del Fora
Premium Member
Overall, I wouldn't trade my present age for a younger one. For instance, when I look back on how little I understood 20 or 30 years ago, compared to what I understand today, the price I pay for my current age seems well spent.
 

Revoltingest

Pragmatic Libertarian
Premium Member
I've heard that age brings wisdom, peace, contentment & joy.
To be young is to be stupid, indestructible & full of energy.
I'd take the latter over the former any day.
But I have what I have, & it's good enuf.
 
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dust1n

Zindīq
Sorry to hear about your knee. Hope it's alright.

Aging is cool. I like older ladies. Older guys are cool too. I just kind of observe me aging. It goes by quick.
 

LuisDantas

Aura of atheification
Premium Member
Here is hoping for a straight recovery of your knee.

I have no idea how I deal with aging.

I do know that I never quite knew how to handle my own age, either. I do miss some aspects of my youth, but as it turns out people have a respect for maturity (even if it is only physical maturity) that I sorely missed back then. And I was so clueless, too...

I guess that ultimately aging helps me by restricting my options. I haven't been blessed by the emotional structure and support that I craved for during my formative years, and in many respects it is a relief to know that I won't have too many choices forever. Mortality itself is something I quite embrace, because I wouldn't want to carry the scars of my lonely upbringing for very long in any case.
 

NIX

Daughter of Chaos
I would be all for aging in every other way if physical aging stopped early thirties?

Still I would not go back. The wine is gloriously refined! though the cask could use some repair.
 

YmirGF

Bodhisattva in Recovery
Sorry to hear about the knee, MysticHeath'er. I trust you will recover sooner than you hope.

For you, what does aging mean to you? Do you fear it? Do you embrace it? Do you simply observe?

IOW, how do you cope?
I am around a lot of fairly old people now, Heather and I am doing a lot of observing. It is a real education. So far, the biggest problem I see, especially for men, is dealing with diminished capacity. At 56... nearing 57, I am young enough to do almost everything I once did, but old enough to pay attention and think things through before I just rush full bore ahead. I make sure to lift with my legs and I am so thankful that I did yoga for so many years as it has left me incredibly flexible. Though it might sound odd, I also listen to my body tell me when it has had enough. Then I stop and do something else. For me, the aging process, is learning how to pace oneself and I don't see that ending...
 

haribol

Member
Aging is a wonderful idea and if we do not age we become bored with life, the same thing, the same life style. We will be fed up with youthfulness and youthfulness is beautiful because it is short-lived and scarce and when we have too much of it we will disdain it in while. Old age has its own beauty and of course we love the youth and the memory of it becomes more beautiful than the returning of it
 

JayJayDee

Avid JW Bible Student
For you, what does aging mean to you? Do you fear it? Do you embrace it? Do you simply observe?

IOW, how do you cope?

My Grandmother once said to me.."I might be 90 on the outside, but inside I'm an 18 year old girl"...

I never really knew what she meant until my own youth began to disappear. The older you get..the faster it goes! :sad4:

As one with a son who is now in his 40's, it has always fascinated me why people only feel old on the outside, when in their hearts they are still youthful.

It has to do with our present lifespan I believe. Solomon wrote, "Everything he has made pretty in its time. Even time indefinite he has put in their heart, that mankind may never find out the work that the [true] God has made from the start to the finish." (Eccl 3:11) God has actually programmed our hearts to go on living eternally. Death was never supposed to happen, so we have no capacity to accept it.

Adam and his wife were told that death would result from eating the fruit of one forbidden tree. If they had never eaten from that tree, no death would have resulted. Death only came as the result of sin....no sin would have meant no death!
Eternal life was intended for the human family from the beginning. A "tree of life" was also in the garden, guaranteeing them unending life in paradise conditions. (Gen 3:22)

Since we are not programmed for death, we are not programmed to age or to get sick either. None of that was supposed to be in the realms of our experience.

That is why aging feels so wrong and why getting old and sick is so degrading.
A visit to any aged care facility will reveal that these once vital people had no intention or will for this to happen to them. :(

God has promised to eliminate death and all causes of pain and suffering in the near future, (Rev 21:3, 4) According to Job 33:25..."Let his flesh become fresher than in youth; Let him return to the days of his youthful vigor." Obedient mankind will then be restored to 'youthful vigor', as God intended at the start. With sin eliminated, life will be wonderful. Nothing to limit anything we have in mind to accomplish. How good will that be?

Can't wait!!
 
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seeking4truth

Active Member
I woudn't swap my retirement for my children's hectic lifestyle. Thank God I have time to just be, to do as I like or not do, if I don't feel like it. I have time to pray as much as I like, to read as much as I like, be polite, to listen, to give help , to consider others rather than be rushed by demands of work and other pressures.
 

Heathen Hammer

Nope, you're still wrong
I fight it with every fiber of my being; I've finally figured everything out, ready and able to make good decisions and improve the world, and now my body is going to break down? Bad design.

Want my money back.
 

MysticSang'ha

Big Squishy Hugger
Premium Member
I am seriously loving the variety of responses, y'all. :)

Sorry to hear about the knee, MysticHeath'er. I trust you will recover sooner than you hope.

Thanks, dear friend. :hug:

I am around a lot of fairly old people now, Heather and I am doing a lot of observing. It is a real education. So far, the biggest problem I see, especially for men, is dealing with diminished capacity. At 56... nearing 57, I am young enough to do almost everything I once did, but old enough to pay attention and think things through before I just rush full bore ahead. I make sure to lift with my legs and I am so thankful that I did yoga for so many years as it has left me incredibly flexible. Though it might sound odd, I also listen to my body tell me when it has had enough. Then I stop and do something else. For me, the aging process, is learning how to pace oneself and I don't see that ending...

I think that's fairly close to how I see it, though I'm still new to the needing-to-pace-myself thing. I admit to still jumping in headfirst to pretty much anything. I'm starting to see, though, that my body takes longer to prepare and longer to heal and is more susceptible to injury. I guess people like me need to learn all this the hard way. :D
 

Falvlun

Earthbending Lemur
Premium Member
My Grandmother once said to me.."I might be 90 on the outside, but inside I'm an 18 year old girl"...
See, that sounds like the stuff of horror movies to me. My grandma once told me that when she looks in the mirror, it suprises her a lot, because her image of herself is still what she looked like when she was 20, and she doesn't fully recognize the face in the mirror as hers.
 

Jayhawker Soule

-- untitled --
Premium Member
I love being 67, even when it hurts.

Hope your knee gets better soon sweetheart. After all, the rest of you is so outstanding!
 
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