I have been looking again at Wikepedia\u2019s article on Ageing – one of my early reference points for these blogs. Ageing is described there as the accumulation of changes in an organism or object over time, a multidimensional process of physical, psychological, and social change. Some dimensions of ageing grow, says the article, and expand over time, whilst others decline. Reaction time, for example, may slow with age (that sounds familiar), whilst knowledge of world events and wisdom may (hopefully) expand.<\/p>\n
The article makes various termilogical distinctions such as \u2018universal\u2019 ageing \u2013something that happens to everyone; \u2018probabilistic\u2019 ageing, which may happen to some people but not to others; \u2018chronological\u2019 ageing, defined by the number of years we can expect to live; \u2018social\u2019 ageing (what\u2019s expected of the elderly in any society) and \u2018biological\u2019 ageing. The article then becomes somewhat technical and to me, remote from real experience. Just like everything else, there are specialists in this field who study ageing, whereas we are older have to live with it.<\/p>\n
At the end of last year I made a formidable list of the things that were wrong with me \u2013 my health I mean, not my temper (though the two are related). Only one of them is serious enough to be a problem because unlike some of the others, it is progressive. It was a self-indulgent exercise but at least it made plain to me that ageing is more about the body (the \u2018biological\u2019 ageing referred to above) than the mind (though that is physical too of course). It\u2019s real this deteriation, not imaginary. But whereas the mind can\u2019t change it, it can manage it; which is the real challenge as we get older. That doesn\u2019t mean pretending that it isn\u2019t happening, but as far as possible, changing one\u2019s lifestyle to accommodate it.<\/p>\n
That means obvious things, like not moving as quickly as you used to do (and thereby causing less breakages in the kitchen!), allowing yourself to pause before answering a question so as to make sure that you respond correctly, reorganising what you eat at meals rather than insisting that what you have always enjoyed at the table is still good for you when plainly it isn\u2019t, not throwing yourself around in despair because of memory loss, and hoping that when you say something that you forget that you said five minutes ago, people will be patient and forgiving.<\/p>\n
We have to accept what is unavoidable but must resist the idea that in the process we have become someone else. We may be different but we are \u2013 as we have said in these blogs before \u2013 still ourselves. The differences may disturb us but they can be interesting as well. : \u2019multi-dimensional\u2019 as Wikepedia says!<\/p>\n
Bryan<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
I have been looking again at Wikepedia\u2019s article on Ageing – one of my early reference points for these blogs. Ageing is described there as the accumulation of changes in an organism or object over time, a multidimensional process of physical, psychological, and social change. Some dimensions of ageing grow, says the article, and expand over time, whilst others decline. Reaction time, for example, may slow with age (that sounds familiar), whilst knowledge of world events and wisdom may (hopefully) expand. The article makes various termilogical distinctions such as \u2018universal\u2019 ageing \u2013something that happens to everyone; \u2018probabilistic\u2019 ageing, which may <\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-789","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-general"],"yoast_head":"\n