Time Marches On By Dr. Juan Harrison

For a lot of us starting to experience the woes and throes accompanying senior sainthood, or for those who have been there done that, we’ve picked up some perceptions and opinions as we’ve raged against the machine.  For some of us, it was slowly watching our demise in the mirror.  For others it was watching our partners slowly or sometimes rapidly decline.

For a number of us it might simply be the acceleration of some physical or mental process we’re in the middle of.  For others it might be fighting off a whole new enemy who hadn’t raised its head, heart, lungs, mind until now.  We feel it in our body.  We see it in the gait, facial expressions, momentary or later almost unrelenting pain reflected in audible outburst caused by sudden jabbing pain.

We’re more careful where we plant our feet.  We more closely study our partner’s fear inducing stumbles or trips as almost everything in our paths becomes our mortal enemy leading down broken hip boulevard.  We fight it, but Mr. Fear teases and intimidates us.  He seeks to remove our joy and replace it with anxiety.

Along the way we find the legs getting weaker and affecting all of our movement, those awesome earlier days of crawling around on the floor with the grands, having shoot outs with bad guys or putting construction projects together.  Sadly, we’ve watched our lack of strength, agility, and general mobility decline and begin to limit our interaction on the floor.  Now we try to participate with them while sitting in a nearby chair with some kind of handle or stick or cane to steady us when we start our wobbly ascent from a chair to a standing position.

Most of my peers complain most about the challenges of getting up out of a chair and regaining their balance once the tow truck has hoisted them up.  You sometimes have to watch it rising too quickly for fear of almost launching oneself like an Elon Musk rocket out into space.

All of us old guys know that the longer we’re blessed to live on this earth, the more likely one of these old folks’ issues will build their nest in our hair and move the family of woes and ailments in.  It’s a mixed bag.  We love the extra time we’ve been gifted to spend with the grands and great grands.  Still, humanly we hate to see the decline in appearance and mobility of ourselves and our partners and old friends.  As the pews begin to empty themselves of old members, we know short of the Rapture our spot on the back row will eventually add to the growing emptiness along side our old buddies’ spots on Sundays.  At least then we no longer have to watch the sad decline of us and our peers. 

By Dr. Juan Harrison