We are near to the end of this modest attempt to recognise that all of us get old, and we have explored some of the ways in which we can cope with its inevitability. We were saying at one point that we hardly recognise the person we have become as we look in the mirror and no longer see the face that once we had. O.K., we can\u2019t do anything about that but we CAN tell ourselves that we are still the person we have always been. You are still you yourself.<\/p>\n
We kid ourselves that\u2019s it is not so. Forgetting a name? Well, perhaps that\u2019s nothing new \u2013 you\u2019ve always had that problem! Fingers slipping onto the wrong keys on the computer? Again \u2013 that may be nothing new, you may never have been digitally agile! Puffing a bit as you climb a hill? \u2013 since when have you been an antelope! Mispronouncing words? \u2013 malapropisms have long been your trademark! Have to use the spell-check a lot when you are using this amazing machine? Be honest, you were never that good at spelling. Parking the car takes longer than it used to? Yes, but three-point turns were never your speciality.<\/p>\n
Ageing emphasises existing characteristics and they mark us out as the person we are and will always be, rather than replacing us with a new persona. The story may be different and the pace of our life has changed and you are not as mentally quick as you once were; it\u2019s a new scenario, but the drama of your life remains. This old person is the same one that you have been living with all these years.<\/p>\n
We have been reviewing a process not a transmogrification! You are not as beautiful as you once were perhaps: shrunken a little perhaps, and lined. It feels sometimes that you are a stranger to yourself and perhaps to others too. People who haven\u2019t seen you for a while can\u2019t hide their surprise. It happened to me recently. After some years of not seeing each other, we met with a very dear friend and she exclaimed, \u2018you don\u2019t look the same\u2019. \u2018Of course not I thought. But it\u2019s still me\u2019.<\/p>\n
And so it is.<\/p>\n
Bryan<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
We are near to the end of this modest attempt to recognise that all of us get old, and we have explored some of the ways in which we can cope with its inevitability. We were saying at one point that we hardly recognise the person we have become as we look in the mirror and no longer see the face that once we had. O.K., we can\u2019t do anything about that but we CAN tell ourselves that we are still the person we have always been. You are still you yourself. We kid ourselves that\u2019s it is not so. <\/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-881","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-general"],"yoast_head":"\n