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Saturday, June 30, 2012

The Good Oil

Recently I turned 40.  I don't feel 40 - not emotionally anyway - I still feel like a 20-something. Sometimes I even act like a 20-something but with the added advantage of experience. I've made the dumb mistakes before, and have hopefully learned from them.

But although my mind still feels young, the bodies definitely not keeping up with the programme. It just knew - Jeff, you're coming up to 40 - it's about time we start giving you some middle age problems. And don't get me wrong, it wasn't all rosy before that - I have various ailments, but they weren't necessarily AGE-RELATED ailments.

It certainly makes you want for the younger years, and even makes you feel a little jealous of those dopey younglings ...



For the last 10 years or so I've been playing football with a team called the McGillivray Allstars. The team has been playing since the early 90's and has the honour of having never lost a game. On occasions it's been close, but never yet have we lost.  That's because we don't have an opponent (our opponent is ourselves).

Every weekend - rain, hail or shine; summer or winter, we get up pretty much at the same time as we'd get up to go to work - and we play.  Well, to clarify, some of us play. It's a fluid thing, there's no obligation to go down there.  From week to week we come and go as our commitments and dedication allow, but every week there is somewhere between 5 and 14 players - without fail. 

As you might expect, the age range of our players also varies, but is mostly in the 40+ age bracket.  Our youngest regular is 29; our oldest 67.  

But getting back to my point on age and feeling it - the other day as we were playing and it was about 2 degrees celcius, a couple of the guys started talking about using fish oil.  As you probably know, fish oil is the first line of defence against arthritis and "creaking bones".

Well, it soon was like a knitting circle.  The other guys caught wind of the conversation and grouped together - sharing their opinions on which fish oil, whether capsules were better than drinking the oil straight from the bottle, etc, etc.

That, my friends, sums up being 40 and beyond.  Things start to go on you.  You don't want them to, but it just happens. I eat reasonably well, am not overweight, I don't exercise enough, but I don't smoke, and I drink moderately at best. Despite all this, I still wake up feeling like an elephant has stomped on me in the middle of the night.  I must say, I wasn't prepared for the ailments, or for them to seemingly all come at once. It scares me to think of the ailments yet to come.

I guess, in time, I'll learn to deal with it.  Maybe this is where the mid-life crisis begins? I don't know? For some reason I'm reminded of an old story (most of which, including the name, I can't remember) about a man who is immortal.  Whilst he never dies, he continues to age.  Well, let me tell you - that would really suck!


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