There once was a man who said he was going to have his patience tested. (I was positive from his demeanor that he would test negative.) I have been told that I have the patience of Job, but it seems that this year in particular my patience has been pushed to its extreme outer limits on a few occasions. Perhaps this comes as a natural part of the aging process. Having never been in my upper 50s before, I have no frame of reference.
I remember once my 30s going to a meeting with former Union County Director of Schools David F. Coppock and the now happily retired former Union County Principal Roger Flatford. When we returned to the Central Office, one of the former (and more colorful) members of the Union County Board of Education was waiting to speak with Mr. Coppock. As we walked into the building, the board member said, “Where’ve you all been?”
I replied enthusiastically, “We’ve just come from a brain development workshop!”
“Blank!” he replied. (I’m sure you know he didn’t actually say blank, but if you’re as smart as I think you are, Faithful Reader, you certainly won’t have trouble filling in that blank.)
This happened around twenty or so years ago, and I remember one major thing from that workshop. One of the presenters stated that the first thing the brain did every morning after the body turned fifty was to remind the body that it was still alive. Having been in the 50s for six years now, I have found there to be some substance to that statement. I wonder if living IN the 50s (the decade) was more exciting than living THROUGH the 50s (years of age). I bet for sure it was an experience living IN the decade of the 50s while being 50-something years of age, but none of those people are here to testify.
I’ve always enjoyed being around older people. When I was a child, they gave me candy—now, they call me “young man”, which is even better than a kid getting sweets! The statement “age is just a state of mind” has truly become a cliché. The great poet Edgar A. Guest wrote a poem (published in Howell, Clinton T. ed., Better Than Gold, © 1970, New York: Thomas Nelson, Inc.) to emphasize that point of view. The recurring line “I know old men at forty and young men at seventy-three” ends the first and second stanzas, is slightly modified for the end of the third stanza (“I know old men at forty and young men at seventy-three”) and ends with these memorable lines:

For Age is not alone of time, or we should
never see
Men old and bent at forty and men young at
seventy-three.

The aging process is just like everything else in life: it can be looked at both positively and negatively, and the individual outlook depends upon life experiences to a great extent. Perhaps the two major circumstances that form a person’s view on the subject is happiness and health, which are not always distinguishable from one another.
Consider gray hair. There are women (and men) who go to considerable trouble and expense to cover their gray. I remember a commercial from my youth with the jingle “I’m goanna’ wash that gray right outta’ my hair”. Others, proud of their glistening crown, adopt the philosophy “I don’t have gray hair—I have wisdom highlights”. As one elderly person put it, “Some people try to turn back their odometers. Not me; I want people to know why I look this way. I've travelled a long way, and some of the roads weren't paved.” One experienced senior citizen noted, “Eventually you will reach a point when you stop lying about your age and start bragging about it.” Yet another offered, “One of the many things no one tells you about aging is that it's such a nice change from being young.” Yet another sage said, “Being young is beautiful, but being old is comfortable.” As it was so well put in an email I received, “One must wait until evening to see how splendid the day has been.”
Aging also seems to bring an increase in the number of falls. Many elderly people suffer falls that cause severe, often fatal, damage to their bodies. For those who have what I will call “mini-falls” quite often without serious self-injury, they might say “I don’t trip—I do random gravity checks”. Nevertheless, the floor or ground always seems to triumph.
Someone said, “You don’t realize how old you are until you sit on the floor and them try to get back up.” Another said, “I remember being able to get up without making sound effects.” Yet another, “When you do squats, are your knees supposed to sound like a goat chewing on an aluminum can stuffed with celery?” I remember well the mother of one of my college friends. Well into her 80s, she was able to sit on the floor with her granddaughters and play with them, seemingly exerting no more effort to sit or rise from the floor than a teenager.
Everyone knows that children can do things that adults find amusing. Those same things are scandalous when done by adults. There are also things the elderly can do that other adults and even children find amusing, though these things would not be acceptable when done by young or middle aged adults. Senior adults are often forgiven for their lack of correct information. A senior once said, “When I say, ‘The other day,’ I could be referring to any time between yesterday and 15 years ago.”
I close with an experience I once had when visiting a nursing home. An elderly friend of mine was rooming with a woman named Roxie. Roxie had maintained her charm even in her state of confusion. I noticed that she had a picture over her bed, obviously of her and her husband. I commented, “That’s a nice picture of you and your husband.”
“That’s my mommy,” Roxie replied.
“Sure looks a lot like you,” I said.
“It should! She’s my mommy!”
Nobody can argue with logic like that!

For your consideration:

The older I get,
the earlier it gets late.
I finally got eight hours of sleep.
It took me three days, but whatever.