You should not let the shower hit you in the face. That is something I learned at an early age. A dermatologist’s sage advice. The force of water can break tiny blood vessels ( capillaries) in your skin and give you the appearance of rosacea. If you are going to end up with reddened “drinkers nose” it should by all means be from drinking or at least driving into the wind at breakneck speed in a water craft.
Also, if you work in front of a camera, you should learn to sleep on your back. This advice was dispensed regularly by none other than the great Paul Newman. I know we supposedly breathe more efficiently when we are on our sides, but Paul says no and well … Paul. I can sacrifice a little air to avoid waking up with the side of my face smushed up. When I was younger, of course, the pillow creases would soon disappear, my youthful visage easily restored. But nowadays? We would have to apply the spackle with a spatula.
The same scenario exists with the wearing of swim goggles The lines /dents from doing so can remain stubbornly vivid for days. I am a Pisces and must be in water frequently so a compromise has been made by alternating free-style swimming with the paddleboard.
At the age of 63, there are all kinds of activities which threaten to advance my age. Stroll down the street? You could get sunspots on your face and hands. You can also get them from driving a car and the above-mentioned swimming. That must be done under cover of night. Massage chairs, acupuncture visits? More dents and damnable creases from those never-never-never comfortable headrests. High impact exercise? There go your knees.
I did a play with the lovely Marilu Henner many, many, so many who can count them years ago, and I remember observing her wearing long gloves while driving and thinking that was a bit eccentric. Now I walk my dog covered head to toe, I am never without gloves and hat and scarf. My neighbor once asked me why I wear a mummy suit to drive my car. My avoidance of the sun goes well beyond eccentric and is bordering on obsessive and I am ok with that.
Marilu was right. Her skin is flawless and I have sunspots. She was preternaturally attuned to the issue. I was slow on the uptake but, Marilu Henner has known how the cow eats the cabbage all along.
So I have learned a few things about self-preservation over the years. But there are so many things that I don’t know about how to do this living thing correctly.
For instance. Did you know that you are supposed to roll down the windows of your car when you turn on the air-conditioning? When the air first comes on there are weird fumes or some kind of hazard that is expelled into your vehicle. I am not going to pretend to understand it but, once the system gets going it is considered safe, I just learned that one last year. So apparently I’ve spent the last 46 years regularly inhaling chilled particulate matter. Perhaps I should donate my body to the scientific study of the effects of excess Freon on a gal’s system.
What other bad habits/ oversights have I maintained that might come back to bite me in the butt?
How much caution is too much caution when it comes to this? Who am I really fooling in the end? Anyone with a smartphone can tell you how old I am. Ask Alexa. She will spill the beans in a matter of moments. I don’t want to look younger, but I admit that I still want to look good for my age and also that I don’t know exactly what that means.
And health. I want that.
Someone recently informed me that eggs are considered healthy again, but they are taking it back about wine. The long-touted benefits of moderate alcohol consumption are now on the chopping block! I love an egg--thanks for all clear there--but don’t take my wine! Boo hiss boo! I say worms to that!, I am going to wait on a few more studies before I give back my Chardonnay ( which I know is off-trend, but still delicious, so worms to that too.) I can’t remember whether coffee is good for us or not. I did read that caffeine is one of the only things that actually help with memory loss and mental focus, so I don’t care if it is fixin’ to kill me. I’m keeping coffee.
Then there are the cautions about nightshade plants and too much soy. Nuts can give you kidney stones, meats heart disease, fish mercury poisoning, fruit juice diabetes, and to top it off, the bastards now say we are not getting enough sun! I’ll take my prescription vitamin D and my chances.
I can’t keep track of all the things I need to worry about.
For now I am just gonna keep doing the things I love to do and eating the things I love to eat because the folks in the “know” keep changing their minds. I will do this within reason of course.
Everything in moderation. Including at times … moderation.
I am inherently accident-prone. I recently took a full header in front of Sprouts supermarket at 11 in the morning on a slow Tuesday and I cannot tell you why. What was stumbled over, tripped on or misjudged? Who knows? I have taken more than my share of falls, hit my head a gajillion times, slammed my hand into car doors, walked into the wall on my way back to a hotel bed in the dark. Anyone who has ridden with me will tell you that I am a bit of a jumpy driver and my spacial sense is dreadful. Parallel parking is arduous, and, while turning right, I have missed the mark and driven up onto the curb countless times. I love Lyft and Uber. We are all safer when I am in one of them.
I try to mitigate the damage. I try to be careful. I do balance exercises, hold the handrail on the staircase and use caution crossing the street. I still dare to ride a bike now and then on actual roads, not in front of a TV in the gym. But I avoid riskier activities like horseback riding or roller-skating. Of course, just putting one foot in front of the other can be hazardous.
A group of old, dear dear pals and I recently went for a walk In Idlewild and my friend Gail twisted her ankle. She was limping a bit, but she wasn’t really worried about it. Just a slip of the foot. We went home and gave her an ice pack and went on with our day. It wasn’t until we noticed it was terribly swollen that we took it seriously and went for X-rays. It was broken in four places.
Getting older is a bitch.
My friend Shawn says that after the age of 55 there are no injuries. They all become a condition.
Shawn is a sage.
I have lost a lot of good, great friends and family members in the last few years. A few were felled by bad habits. Smoking/ drinking/ obesity/ drugs. It turns out that if you do every single thing they tell you not to do and you do it relentlessly, it can and will kill you. Most, though, lost their lives to diseases that are genetic by nature. Our destinies are in large part determined by our inherited biology. There is some comfort in that. Whatever fate holds around the corner is going to find its way to us, tofu or no tofu.
Getting older is a bitch, but it is also a privilege. Count me in.
On we go …
My favorite article yet!!
Thought leader! Love.