Ageing – RodneyOlsen.net

Well … that was a surprise

July 23, 2015

To be honest, I was more surprised than anyone. I wasn’t expecting it. I didn’t really think I’d hit 30, let alone 52. Not due to any sickness or disease, rather that in my late teens and early twenties I really couldn’t imagine what could possibly lay beyond the age of 30 for me. I certainly wasn’t going to do anything to hasten my demise, I just had an underdeveloped sense of imagination.

I am more than pleased I got over that idea. I now have more than enough plans and dreams to last me until about 120. Whether I’ll last that long or not is still up for debate.

I reached the age of 52 yesterday. I celebrated the milestone with my amazing wife and incredible children, with birthday greetings from friends and family around the world. I’m truly blessed.

While I’m not particularly thrilled about the toll ageing takes on us all, it’s not all bad. At least the fact that my eyes don’t work as well as they once did means I can’t see how old I’m looking.

You may have noticed that I don’t get to write here as much as I once did. I’d like to say that I’ll put up more posts in the coming days and weeks but while that’s my desire, life often gets in the way and that’s not such a bad thing. I do hope to write here a lot more because I enjoy it so much but we’ll wait and see what happens.

If you’d like to find a way to say happy birthday for yesterday from wherever you are in the world here are a few suggestions.

Like My Blog On Facebook

I’d love to stay connected with you on Facebook. This blog, RodneyOlsen.net, has a public Facebook page that makes staying in touch really easy. It’s simply just a place to share stuff on Facebook such as blog posts and more regular posts. Just head to the Facebook page and click ‘like’.

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Whenever you drop in to my blog, please, please, please feel free to use the little buttons at the bottom of each post to share my posts via Facebook, Twitter or whatever other service you’re using. Hey, you can even click the email button to send a copy to your friends. When you share my posts in any, or all, of these ways, more people visit my blog and I smile a lot. Really I do. If you use StumbleUpon I would especially love you to Stumble my posts. You’re more than welcome to spend a few minutes going back over my posts and sharing a few.

Comment On My Posts

Don’t just think it …. say it. I love it when people leave comments on my posts. Your comments make me smile big time.

These few things are a real encouragement for me to keep blogging so if you’ve got a few moments I’d really appreciate it. Thanks.

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We need to talk …

June 29, 2013

by Rodney Olsen

7 Comments

I’m just a few weeks away from a significant birthday so I thought I should write a quick letter to someone who’s travelled this journey of life with me for all those years.

Dear ageing body

I know I haven’t always treated you right and there are times I’ve taken you for granted but I think we both know it’s time we talked.

Firstly, about the hair. Let’s not play this game any more. I understand that you may prefer not to waste your energies on pushing strands of hair through my scalp and I’m OK with that. I don’t have a lot of money and so having more time between haircuts is not such a bad thing. You’re saving me more and more on haircuts, shampoo and other hair products as each year passes. But if you’ve decided not to bother growing hair on my head, let’s not bother with the weird, random, ear hair. I don’t need it there and I think the only result is that it makes both you and me look stupid. (Don’t get me started on nose hair.)

And about the lines on my face. You know the ones I’m talking about. I know that people talk about wrinkles adding character but seriously? How much character does a person need? To be clear, character is good, looking like the map of a busy inner city centre is not so good. Let’s not take this wrinkle thin any further.

By the way, can we do something about the eyes? Wearing glasses isn’t such a bad thing in some ways. They do tend to take some of the focus away from those wrinkles I was telling you about, but how about we let the eyes get about their business of seeing things …. clearly. What’s with the whole bleary morning eyes deal? Why is it taking longer each morning before my eyes can focus, even with glasses? Is no one telling them it’s time to get up? Do they need more sleep than other body parts? I remember when I would amaze other people by my ability to read signs way off in the distance. I could also read very fine print in low light. These days I need a couple of 1000 watt floodlights to read normal sized print.

I want you to know that I can see right through you … with the appropriate medical scanning technology. That picture of my back we had taken last year? Scary. What’s going on in there? Those vertebrae look downright weird. You do realise that they’re not meant to look that way don’t you? I’m pleased to say that with the help of a very good naturopath and my daily cycling, the consequences of that horrible mess are being kept at bay, but things in there are seriously screwed up.

Can you tell me where you’re planning to go with the whole “system shutting down” thing? Can I at least have some warning? One minute I’m relaxing by enjoying something on television, next thing I wake up three quarters the way through the next program. I’m sure I haven’t seen an entire program from start to finish for months. Is that now completely out of the question?

There’s more I wanted to say but I’ve forgotten a few of the points I was going to make. Funny how that seems to be happening more and more lately. I think I’ll just go have a nap.

Regards

Me

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Retiring at 100

May 3, 2010

by Rodney Olsen

1 Comment

No thanks!

According to John Beard, director of the World Health Organisation’s Department of Ageing and Life Course, we could soon see people working up to the age of 100. I have no idea if I’ll still be alive at 100 but I do know that I won’t still be working. I’m hoping that if I do reach that age I’ll still be healthy and active but I think by that time I’ll be happy to let someone else have a turn at working.

“Ageing is too often portrayed as a burden on society,” he said before the Global Federation on Ageing conference opened in Melbourne on Monday.

“Sure, there will be impacts on health service delivery and pensions, but society overlooks the skills and experiences of older people.

“By marginalising them, we force them to become dependent on younger generations.”

Mr Beard, an Australian based in Geneva, envisions an older generation that is plugged in to the latest technology as people in their 80s and 90s choose to stay at work. – News.com.au

Apparently only 20 percent of retirees surveyed in a recent US study are happy about their life of leisure, saying that they’d prefer to still be working.

I know that many people say that they’d get Bored if they retired but I think they just lack imagination. I’m sure that I’ll find plenty to do when I retire. There are plenty of activities to keep me busy and more than enough good causes that could do with some help. I don’t see retirement as a chance to sit back and do nothing but an opportunity to change focus and gain more control over what I’m able to put my efforts into.

What about you? Would you want to work until you’re 100? What age do you think you’ll retire? What will you do with your retirement years?

I’d love to get your thoughts. Please leave a few lines in the comments section of this post.

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You haven’t aged a bit

January 7, 2010

by Rodney Olsen

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Time may move on relentlessy but I noticed something interesting this morning. My mind refuses to keep up with the times and it’s not necessarily a bad thing.

A friend of mine posted a couple of recent photos on Facebook. I haven’t caught up with him for many years but when I looked at his photos they looked just like him, and to be more specific, they looked just like him from around twenty five years ago when I first got to know him.

I can see that he’s aged but I still see the guy I knew all those years ago. I don’t think of him as a guy in his twenties but that’s what I’m seeing.

It seems to be the case with anyone I meet that I’ve known a long time. I always see them physically as the person I first got to know rather than the person they are now.

I see middle aged people that to my eyes look like twenty year olds. If I met them for the first time today I’m sure I’d see them very differently.

Do you find the same thing? Sure, you can tell that someone’s got a bit older. Less hair and what’s there is looking decidedly gray but they still look like the person you’ve always known?

My only hope is that people I’ve known for decades see me that way too.

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Advice for the child I was

June 1, 2009

by Rodney Olsen

4 Comments

I’m not really sure when this photo was taken but I know it was well over 40 years ago. It’s me when I was just a few years old, before I learned so many of life’s lessons.

As I look into the face of that happy, innocent child, I wonder what advice I would give him. If I could go back to the mid-sixties and give my ‘young self’ some life advice, what would I say?

I think I’d tell him not to worry about the small stuff so much. I’d also tell him to cultivate a strong reading habit.

Some of my strongest advice would be in the area of faith. I’d recommend that he stay as close to God as he could and to learn how to lean on him through the good and the hard times.

I’d tell him to make the most of his relationship with his mother because he’d only have her around until his early twenties. (Thankfully I did have a great relationship with mum, but she still passed away far too soon.)

One of the things I’d be sure to say is to make sure you take lots of risks. Not reckless risks that would endanger him or others, but risks that ensure that he didn’t ever wonder ‘what would have happened if only ….’.

I’d tell him to treasure every relationship.

I’m sure that there would be plenty to tell that young boy. There are lessons that I’ve had to learn the hard way that would have been easier if someone had the right words to say back then.

Overall, I don’t have many regrets but I certainly wouldn’t want to go back and do it all over again. I’ve had a pretty good life so far and while it’s likely that I’ve passed the half way mark already, I still feel as if life is just beginning in some ways. I’m also finding that a lot of the advice that I would give that young boy is the kind of advice that I’m giving or need to give to the two young lives God has entrusted to me now.

If you could go back and give some advice to yourself when you were very young, what would you say?

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Tag - Ageing