It presents with stealth and subtle warning. Mathematically, the accrual began a few years sooner but now the reckoning and the adjustments to the stigma of achieving, reaching, getting, and accumulating heartbeats begins in earnest. Its just heartbeats and synapses, like a tachometer for the cardiovascular/nervous system. That is important because the need to pump blood and think thoughts is the real value measured by the number 60.
I am now in the business of downsizing the number of heartbeats because there are a finite number before my warranty runs out. Someone once lamented to me that jogging causes the heart rate to rise, spending the lifetime allotment of beats prematurely. It is known that the resting heart rate or pulse is slower in a runner and the heart pumps more blood per stroke, conserving strokes while fulfilling volume. I want it below 60 bpm. So I run but I need sneakers every 500 miles and iPod updates more often than that. If it were not for age I would have no CV risk factors at all so I am working on raising HDL above sixty (60) so I can claim one less risk factor, namely a couple years. The drug* I sell can do that; In partnership with my good doctor, good diet and regular exercise, like running 3 miles and using stairs, I am the poster man for reverse cholesterol transport. I am now dangerously close to the promotional brink here and it is a little tacky, I know, but I was the same way when I quit smoking and became a militant anti-puffer so indulge me its my birthday Live with it or die from it!
"I was so much older then, I'm younger than that now", says Bob Dylan and friends who are beyond 60 and still idling. Neil Young, Mick Jagger & the premature deaths of Jim Morrison, Jimi Hendrix and Janis Joplin educated me. Clapton experienced the death of a child and survived it by immersion into the Blues and I went with him without the tragedy but with compassion still. Layla rings on my phone.
My much younger wife has sponsored my energy and cooked up a strategy to purge rocking chairs from our lives. Together on the porch we'll be seen staining it or shucking corn but not rocking in a chair. The hammock is quarantined by the fallen branch episode so my John Deere has become my lounge and the lawn my canvas. And the kayaks keep us afloat.
Try to keep up. The moral of this story is that my best gift is my good health and its value improves with age.
* Niaspan
2 comments:
My BPM is between 57 and 59 with the help of a NordicTrack I inherited from my son. Truthfully I have been exercising pretty regularly since 54. Random number. I have no idea why I choose that time to focus on staying healthy.
I have been smoke free for almost 4 years. The Niaspan went in the trash. The flush turned into 2 or 3 very agonizing hours of burning and itching so I have a new friend called Tricor. My goal is to be drugfree by 65. We shall see. I eat healthy soups which translates into no meat.
I find myself listening to my heart late at night. It seems to be very content just chugging along. I also am very aware of the work my heart has done and the work it has to do. I know that tomorrow is always just out of reach and so not guaranteed. I miss old friends, neighbors, grands, lovers and my soul mate. They are forever frozen in time.
Selfishly I hope the wrinkles stay away and the feebleness that seems to creep into our limbs with age stays gone for many years to come. Deep down I long to hear my heart beat well into old age. I work on keeping my mind strong so someday I can look at the wrinkles and smile at all the songs, laughter, stories and tragedies that I have survived and know I have done no harm and given enough to others to be remembered for a generation.
60 is a milestone that a lot never see. I walk into each day with my head up reaching for tomorrow. No moss shall grow on the side of this small tree.
David and Gretchen. I don't go to the doctor, so cannot quote my heart rate, cholesterol, etc. I quit cigarettes thanks to my second pregnancy when they made me nauseous... 30 years ago. At 59 I started a diet and I have good intentions to exercise. Right now that is accomplished by babysitting the grandchildren (lifting one 20 and one 40 lbs., getting up and down playing on the floor, hide and seek in the house raises a sweat as they only count to ten(got to be quick). I am blessed with good health through no effort of mine. I am encouraged by your written words. I will have to start my exercise regimen out at a walk when the weather improves. I have never been 'moved' to run and probably never will be, but never say never. I want to see my grandchildren grow up. My biggest fear is of losing my mind. I am watching my mother-in-law slowly lose hers and it is fearful. While caring for Mary Jean, I think of Dad also who has been diagnosed with Alzheimer's. For these reasons I, as well as my impending 60th, I am working on Me, with sustained good health and mental acuity as my goals. I will be joining your ranks (blessed with 6 decades) in just a few months. I am enjoying my life and want the days left to me to be many and to be good. We boomers have lots of company in this journey.
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