Garth George: Finding peace of mind in an ageing body

Photo / Rotorua Daily Post

Sometime around 4 o'clock this morning I became a septuagenarian. I have reached my biblically allotted span of three score years and 10 but, praise God, the psalmist allows that some may live much longer.

Yesterday, as I clambered out of bed to dress for my morning walk, I happened to glance at the bedroom mirror and noted once again the wrinkles, the lived-in face, the pot gut, the sagging bum and the all-over grey hair.

I am sometimes taken aback by that elderly man who lives in my mirror, and who looks like my father.

But only briefly. As I've aged I've become more at home in my own body and, more importantly, in my own mind.

I can readily accept myself just as I am; that tall, dark, handsome and virile bloke who once inhabited my mirror is nought but a pleasant memory.

It's what's in the mind that counts. As the Bible quite rightly says, "As a man thinketh, so is he". We are not what we own, or wear, or eat, or do, we are what we think.

As I strode round the neighbourhood and watched the latest generation making their way to their primary, intermediate and secondary schools, I recalled a few quotes I'd come across lately.

"Old age is the most unexpected of all things that can happen to a man," said the American writer James Thurber; and the world-renowned entertainer, Maurice Chevalier, maintained that "old age is not so bad when you consider the alternatives".

I agree with them both, but much prefer to listen to Oliver Wendell Holmes, who insisted that "to be 70 years young is sometimes far more cheerful and hopeful than to be 40 years old".

For I am, indeed, 70 years young - and most grateful for it. I have seen too many of my contemporaries - including my younger brother and only sibling - leave this world too soon, before they understood the great freedom that comes with getting old.

The decade of my 60s was one of changes, principal among them retiring from fulltime work and moving happily from the increasingly uncomfortable chaos of Auckland to the peace and quiet of a small, friendly, provincial city which, for all its tourist attraction, remains largely unspoiled and unsophisticated. I like that.

As I walk I begin to count my blessings, the first of which is that for some reason known only to himself, the good Lord has kept me alive.

I long ago stopped asking myself why, because there is no answer to such a question this side of heaven and to ponder it is to risk a descent into self-deceit and even delusions of grandeur. The next greatest blessing is to know God, to believe in him and to trust him, to be aware every day that he is the creator and sustainer of the universe, that he is I AM and thus ever-present, and that he is the same yesterday, today and forever and therefore provides a reference point of security and stability in an increasingly unstable world.

The third great blessing is to have a wife - lover, friend, companion, supporter - with whom I have shared better and worse, richer and poorer, sickness and health these past 33 years and with whom I look forward to sharing all that life still has to bring until death us do part.

The fourth great blessing is family and friends, of whom I have only a handful but without whom life would be dreary indeed. And among these I count good neighbours, of whom I've had a few, but not often. Good neighbourliness, like friendship, is beyond definition of worth.

The fifth great blessing is good health, and that I have, give or take a few long-term complaints that are kept well under control and cause no great inconvenience.

(I have lately developed arthritis in one hip and my GP recommends a replacement. But the local district health board is in no hurry to oblige. It will "endeavour" to provide me with an appointment to see an orthopaedic specialist "within 18 weeks".)

On top of all these I am able to keep my hand in and earn a few dollars by writing this column each week; my wife and I are the beneficiaries of national superannuation, for which we are most grateful.

We and our pets have a lovely home - elderly (like us), unpretentious but warm, comfortable and convenient.

We have plenty of good food, a sufficiency of clothing, and a couple of reliable cars to get about in. There was a time soon after I "retired" when I felt as if I were half a step behind the rest of the world, that I was not quite keeping up, that I should be "doing something".

But those days are gone. I came to understand that after 50 years of having to please someone else, I can at last please myself - all day and every day if I so choose.

So tonight I intend to give myself a real birthday treat - a Mighty Angus burger, French fries and a chocolate thickshake at McDonald's.

garth.george@hotmail.com