The Player's Guide to Aging

It's amazing how fast we age after thirty. Thinking back I see the times through my history that have been wonderful, interesting times that will be cherished as I pass through even more. Being a man in all the times of change, revolution, women's movement, equal rights, moral realignment, and sexual revolutions that defy the imagination, I am still awed and fascinated by this process called aging.

We grow older why? Who sets the limits and standards on what one can or should do at any given age? Why can't a man sixty still function at the level a twenty year old, if he has taken care of his body and mind? What determines how old is old and what is old?

Mentally, we all age at different levels and travel through unique stages of human development where at one point, what one individual feels is old is not what another might.

Studies have shone that mental ability and intelligence plays an important role is how we view ourselves chronologically in our minds. We never think we are as old as the clock says. We put off the transition of time as long as we can and only a quick look in the mirror reminds us that the years have indeed been moving along at a pace that astounds us each time we look at the image staring back.

Black men are good at hiding their age, as our skin does not age like others and we retain that youthful look far into middle age and then some. Most, not all tend to keep fit or in shape enough to give the appearance of youth and vigor even if everything on the inside is failing and falling apart. Ego is a powerful thing and as men, we do push ours to the limit sometime.