Sixty

And that's a lot.

As I have gotten older, "old" has always moved a little further out in my mind, so that only people significantly older than I am are really "old." Nevertheless, as I hit sixty years old yesterday, I feel like this is really a dividing line between middle age and old age. In short, I am officially old now, even if I don't really quite feel it yet.

As some of the issues that have consumed much of my adult life begin to fade in importance - things like raising the kids, achieving some level of financial stability, establishing a career - I expect that a couple of new concerns will rise to the forefront that were never much of a concern before. Let's call them simply "physical" and "mental."

By "physical" I don't mean necessarily staying in shape or being able to run a marathon; I am thinking more of maintaining the ability to walk normally, to drive, to see, to hear, to go up and down stairs, to carry a suitcase. I worry that when these things start to go, my quality of life will suffer significantly.

Of course, most of those things have already started to fade - if I were to play just one game of football now like I meant it, I think I would probably end up crippled, hospitalized, dead, or maybe all three - but I am still well enough on all counts to get around in my daily life not so differently than 30 years ago. At some fast-approaching age, though, it becomes harder to keep all the parts in working order.

And by "mental" I do not mean keeping the same level of sharpness that I had when I was 20, although to the extent that I may be slipping, that is much more subtle. What I worry more about is dementia in one form or another; I really would prefer not to ever go there, and I am definitely at risk.

Fortunately, I think the solutions to these two issues are the same: take good care of my diabetes, and exercise. I have read that the one thing that has really been shown to improve people's mental abilities as they get older is physical activity - all those brain training games don't really work, surprise, surprise. So keep moving, and that helps keep the blood sugar down, keeps the parts working, and helps keep your brain from rotting away. Good stuff. I made a resolution to get up at 4:40 on weekdays and start exercising regularly.

How am I doing? I had a good 20-minute workout on the rowing machine Sunday, rowed 1,000 meters, so the machine said. Monday I did not even set the alarm. Got to ease into it. Tuesday I set the alarm, then turned it off. This morning I got up early, but had to go into work early. So I guess that's progress.