I think I learned something today

As I was slogging around the golf course today, a thought came to me. A sudden realization. An epiphany of sorts.

I am not getting younger.

No, I'm serious. I am moving, perceptively, toward old age. Some of you whippersnappers (I can use that word now, I am old enough) may scoff at this thinking that you aren't getting older, that we only age if we allow it to happen. Let me tell you... you are in for a rude awakening.

After the golf round was over and we were sitting around a table in the clubhouse trying to recover from the heat and exhaustion by swilling copious amounts of beer, I began to realize the conversation (punctuated by multiple incidences of "eh?" and "huh?") was about those of us who were not there due to minor injuries. Well, what would have been minor injuries when we were in our twenties or thirties. What once caused us a few days, a few weeks at the most, of discomfort now disables us for months on end. And what resulted in a bruise in our twenties now results in broken bones.

This is not what I expected. I expected to be as healthy and as hale as I was when I was thirty. And I am. In my mind. In my aging, memory lapsing, mind.

Well, I refuse to cooperate. As of today, I refuse to get any older.