Aging is not lost youth.
60 Months to Ironman: Month One, mid-point.
“Aging is not lost youth but a new stage of opportunity and strength.”
— Betty Friedan
For whatever reason, everyone — I mean, everyone — is posting pictures of themselves from 2009 and 2019, to compare them and judge how hard aging has hit them.
Predictably, it’s devolved to where today I’ve seen someone showing a porn star’s ass on one side and an old woman’s sagging ass on the other. Also, one with a cat on one side and themselves today on the other. (Not only have they aged — they changed species. HAHA!)
I have a relationship with aging that maybe is a little different from most people’s.
My mother died young, at 48, when I happened to be exactly half her age. I turned 47 in October. Right now, as I write this, I’m as old as she was when she had the mammogram that changed everything.
My father was in prison for the entirety of my adolescence. My teenage years were hard. I had a difficult relationship with my step-mother, I had too much responsibility for my many younger siblings. I worked full time through high school to help feed us.
My 20s were similarly difficult. I married very young. There was a very brief…
