Staying young at heart
By Staff
Kim West
I'm not a big Rod Stewart fan, but I've always loved his song, "Forever Young." The song is actually a love song, but the lyrics I liked the most – "And may you grow to be proud, dignified and true/And do unto others as you'd have done to you" – projects aging as an opportunity rather than a dreaded process.
Some of the youngest people I know are much older than me, in terms of years but not in spirit. I'm one of those people who would rather be busy all the time than be bored, so I do my best to stay active. But my baby-boomer parents and grandparents, who grew up during the Depression, seem to have much more energy than I do.
My dad retired for the second time last spring, and ever since then it's been challenging to keep up with my parents' schedule. Isn't retirement supposed to be a time when you can stay at home and relax? After a couple of months, I guess that became too monotonous for them. In the past, I could drop by the house in Athens on Sundays, and they would more than likely be there. Now, they could be out horseback riding on a local trail with a group of friends or visiting the mountains in Tennessee on any day with good weather. So, I've learned to call ahead.
And my maternal grandparents are even harder to figure out. During our childhood, my cousins and I visited several times every summer at their house on Smith Lake in Cullman. I don't know how they had the energy to take six rambunctious children in a minivan to McDonald's or Dairy Queen, or how they had adequate sleep when some of us wouldn't go to bed at a decent time. And now that my cousins and I are all adults – at least in the eyes of the government – my grandparents stay busy with church activities, hosting church groups at the lake and traveling as much as their health will allow.
I don't remember my parents or grandparents taking vacations while I was growing up, but they have taken several trips since retiring. Mom and Dad take riding trips on a regular basis, and Mamaw and Papaw have even taken cruises to Alaska, the Gulf of Mexico and the Mediterranean Sea.
This week, the Franklin County Times staff has been working on our latest insert, a tabloid called "Senior Living," which will feature local advertisers and stories geared towards seniors. I spent part of this week at local nursing homes to interview residents for stories, and I was impressed by their high spirits and their involvement in activities provided by the homes' caring staffs.
I enjoyed talking to the residents because it showed me that your age doesn't determine your happiness. As the late entertainer Jack Benny said, "Age is strictly a case of mind over matter. If you don't mind, it doesn't matter."
