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Our Contributor's Advice on the Aging
Process and Physical Challenges
Whether or not 40 is the break-over point (no pun
intended), it is a medical fact that for the first segment
of one's life the body is growing and strengthening; and
the second segment is rarely a plateau, but rather just
the opposite. The body slowly begins to lose its vigor.
Some manifestations of this are more obvious than
others. People born with perfect near-vision begin to
need reading glasses. Some men develop pattern
baldness.
Women undergo that process which
culminates in the cessation of their monthly cycle. I
think the best way to deal with these inevitable changes
is to look to God's nature. Spring is so exciting with
budding trees, blossoming flowers, new born or hatched
animals and birds. But look closely at that leaf. As
soon as it reaches full maturity, holes begin to appear
where insects have left their mark. The supple light
green color darkens as the sun has hardened the leafs
surface. But, OH! What a beautiful autumn awaits!
We live in a time when political correctness has
forced the use of hypenated phrases. We speak of
someone being "challenged." Wheel chair ramps have
proliferated at the government's mandate. Behind all
the hype, I think most of us realize that one does not
have to be confined to a wheel chair to be called upon
to deal with physical challenges. I know a woman in
her sixties who is an example of courage. She, like
Franklin D. Roosevelt, was stricken with polio years
ago. By all rights, she should have started being
pushed about in a wheel chair twenty years ago; but,
she had too much to do --too many people to help, too
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