Age is just a number: I’ve heard that line for many years. I’ve even repeated it myself, but today it sounds different. That is because today, November 26, is my 70th birthday. Today seventy sounds like much more than a number, It’s in a whole different class than 30, 40, 50 or even 60.
Jimmy Buffet, who is only a few years younger than I, is fond of saying that just because you are getting older, doesn’t mean you have to grow up. I’ll drink to that! Growing up is certainly not on my agenda.
What I do want is to keep on swimming, sailing , shooting , driving too fast, playing my guitar and harmonica and making mad passionate love to my beautiful wife — not necessarily in that order.
I also want to continue to write and share my knowledge and experience with young chiropractors. I can help any who want to listen knock 20 years off their learning curve.
The truth is that age is more than the number we say when someone asks us how old we are. We actually have three ages, our chronological age, our attitudinal age and our biological age. Our chronological age is the only one we can’t do anything about, but we can certainly do something about our attitudinal and biological ages.
We can change our attitude from cranky curmudgeon to young enthusiast in a heartbeat. It’s a choice.
It is also a choice to adopt a healthy lifestyle. Doing so, we can dramatically reduce our biological age.
I like how the Native Americans think of age. They don’t count the years, but recognize only three stages of life: youth, prime and old age. Youth is childhood, the stage of learning and growing. The next phase is adulthood, and is considered the prime of life; anyone who is an active and productive member of the tribe is said to be in his prime. There is no age limit on this phase of life. Old age only begins when a person becomes infirm and no longer has the ability or desire to contribute to the tribe and has reached the point where he is looking forward to joining the ancestors.
The idea is to stay in the prime of life as long as possible, like a surfer riding the crest of a wave.
Dr. Bill
