While this series of “mini”-reflections on aging are clearly personal and about my own aging process, they are also meant, hopefully, to resonate with the experiences of others at or near my age. That said, these ruminations will appear, usually a couple in each post, from time to time.  And here, along with a couple of “umbrella” statements, is the first set, on “Aches and Pains” and “Wisdom.”

Two “Umbrella” statements

• The only thing worse than getting old is not getting old.
• Younger certainties become older uncertainties.

Aches and Pains

As my aging progresses, the more I have become conscious—as have most of my friends and acquaintances of similar age, as our conversations would testify—of my “aches and pains,´ or to put in another way, of the many ways my body is failing me.  For instance, consider this “litany:”

• A cervical spine issue that causes numbness in my lower extremities, effects balance and mobility, requiring use of a cane;
• Spinal stenosis that causes intractable and mostly untreatable lower back pain;
• One knee replaced and another with arthroscopic surgery and “waiting in the wings;”
• Arthritis in most joints
• Hearing loss requiring hearing aids, and cataracts slowly maturing to need for removal;
• A heart attack, which forces the confrontation with mortality in a dramatic way;
• And there are others, e.g. neuropathy, a gall bladder that needs to be removed but cannot be as long as I’m on blood thinners, etc.

So is any of this unique or unusual for a person of my age? Should I feel “picked on” by fate? Overly punished for my “sins?”  No, no, and no. Aging, as the saying goes, is not for sissies. As Frederick Buechner puts it:

“For the majority . . . it’s like living in a house that is in increasing need of repairs. The plumbing doesn’t work right anymore. There are bats in theattic. Cracked and dusty, the windows are hard to see through, and there’s a lot of creaking and groaning in bad weather. . . . “ (Whistling in the Dark: A Doubter’s Dictionary , p. 99)

So what is one to do? As Buechner, again, observes, “The eighty-year old body can be in precarious shape and yet the spirit within as full of beans as ever.” And so, revving up my “beans,” the answer is simple: Get on with my life; be as active as my body will allow; be involved with other people; find and take opportunities to learn, to be useful, to use whatever talents and abilities I have to be helpful and productive.  And I am happy to say, to the best of my ability, that is what I am doing!

Wisdom

It’s interesting that the older I have become, the more people tend to talk about my “wisdom,” when, to tell the truth, I’ve never thought that I had any wisdom.  I have a lot of experience but, as John Dewey said, “We do not learn from experience, we learn from reflecting on experience.” But even reflection doesn’t guarantee wisdom.  In fact, there is no settled opinion, no single accepted definition of wisdom.  Just a basic online search turns up, for example, the following:

• The capacity of judging rightly in matters relating to life and conduct.
• Soundness of judgement in the choice of means and ends.
• Enlightenment, learning, erudition.
• The right use of knowledge.
• Acting with knowledge while doubting what one knows (I like that one!).
• Aristotle defined wisdom as knowing why things are a certain way, which is deeper than merely knowing that things are a certain way.
• Frederick Buechner argued that “Wisdom is a matter not only of the mind but of the intuition and heart.”

When I am impressed in general by someone or struck by something they have said or done such that admiration of their “wisdom” comes to mind, it tends to be because

• they seem insightful—seeing more deeply and/or understanding more broadly the “meaning” of something said, an occurrence or event;
• being able to apply historical precedent to a present happening in a way that is, if not unique, highly distinctive;
• providing advice or commentary in a given situation that arises from a breadth of knowledge of similar situations and the ability to apply what is known to what is to be done. 

No doubt there are other impressions that cause the notion of wisdom to arise, but these come to mind.

So, do I have any or all of those characteristics? I don’t think so, but that’s a judgment for someone else to make.