This is true on a lot of levels, starting with the second law of thermodynamics which deals with entropy. But you know, sitting in a long meeting with a lot of humans, discussing something you don’t much care about will also take time off the clock.
Sometimes I think about it like the electric meter on the side of my house. Some things make the meter run faster; some things slow it down. We got solar panels last year. Even the bright light of the sun won’t spin the meter backwards, but it’s something.
I was talking with Stevil about his recent acquisition of an SE Bikes OM Flyer, a 26″ BMX Cruiser bike and the nascent possibility of wrecking himself on his local pump track with it. This seems, especially in the starkness of black type on white background, to be a terrible idea.
And yet.
Life is going to make you old, no matter what. This isn’t some treacly paean to the idea of staying young by doing youthful things. The laws of thermodynamics are unbending. We’re all dying from birth (yeesh, that’s harsh).
It’s just a question of how we want to grow old. I watched my father do it, in a chair that had taken the shape of his body with CNN blasting at top volume and a sour look on his face. I’d rather spend my latter years (whatever I get of them) listening to the birds and/or explaining to people how I broke my collarbone again, enjoying the wry shaking of their heads, because people my age shouldn’t be riding bikes, much less falling off them.
Everything gets harder, which in my experience to date, actually causes me to enjoy it all that much more. My body tends toward disorder, but I feel the rise of the road more sweetly. I can pick out individual trees on long, dirt descents, my mind more perfectly tuned to the real task of living. I can feel more deeply satisfied without pounding myself to a fine dust.
As we age, time seems to speed up. It’s got to do with the relativity of our perception. For an octogenarian, a year can seem to pass like a month. I’m sure, no matter your age, you are experiencing this phenomenon already. And that makes the imperative to keep going, keep riding, keep looking, keep listening all the more urgent.
At least I think so.
Thanks for the reminder. This matches pretty closely to my lived experience (50 years so far).