FROM THE PORCH SWING

摘要

GETTING OLD AIN'T for sissies. In some ways it seems fairly easy, just keep on living. But old age will sneak up on you. Bones become brittle without you knowing. Muscles don't stretch like they used to, but the loss of flex and elasticity is so gradual that most people don't realize it's happening. About the only way that age doesn't sneak up on us is in getting facial wrinkles. And despite determined attempts to stay positive, who has ever truly happily uttered "Oh good, my first smile Line!"? Once it's here, though, the hard part begins. Sure, the physical ramifications aren't easy to deal with. Pulled, strained and aching muscles are frequent, from playing your favorite sport and not being able to walk the next day, to the twinges your back gives you when reaching something high up in a cabinet, to attempting to lift something you've lifted twenty-eleven times before and getting locked into a painful body position. And sure, the changes to your appearance accelerate dramatically, sometimes to the point that you walk past a mirror and have to turn your head to get a better look at that strange person who was reflected back to your peripheral vision. But, I think the emotional adjustments are the hardest of all.