We humans, physically grow, grow, grow, all the way through our youth. As children, we marked our heights on the doorway in our bedrooms or kitchens. We got new shoes because we grew out of the last pair. We got taller and needed new pants. We grew and grew. Until we stopped. And when the growing ended, the aging process began.
That’s right. The table turns. Surprisingly, this happens around our 25th year.
Though I never liked the word gerontology, it is the study of aging. Gerontology. It just sounds so old.
But the aging process is comprehensive and inevitable. But we should see this as the miracle that is us.
Here are some thoughts on the big deal.
We generally start out with 350 bones in our skeleton when we are born. Then, as we begin to grow along our merry ways, those bones fuse together. When it is all said and done we end up with a measly 206 bones as adults. No wonder we had growing pains. Our bones were merging. Like, 150 of them.
Here’s another one to think about. Babies only have about one cup of blood circulating through their bodies. But in our big adult selves, we have more than a gallon. From one cup to a big gallon. Thankfully, that blood doesn’t just sit there. Our hearts pump it around to all our tissues. The cycle takes about one minute while our heart thumps around 75 times therein.
We are constantly in motion, even when we are at rest.
And while we are just sitting there, knitting our sweaters or playing our games of Grand Theft Auto, we are shedding about 600,000 particles of skin every hour. I know I’ve mentioned this before, but I just can’t seem to get over it. If you want the math on that skin shed, it adds up to 1.5 pounds each year. The average person will therefore have lost around 105 pounds of skin by 70 years of age. Who are you? And what have you done with yourself?
Okay, so we grow that part of us back, along with other cells in our bodies. They used to think that the brain and nerve cells were the only cells in the body that could not regenerate. New research shows that even those grow back with little baby-like cells. Thank goodness.
But there is a lot more to aging, like it or not.
Taste buds die and do not regenerate as we age.
Dang.
Skin loses its elasticity as people grow older.
Double dang.
Bones lose calcium as they grow older, making them more fragile and more likely to break.
Double whammy.
The ability to see in the dark decreases with age, while sensitivity to light increases.
Boom, boom. Out go the lights.
Worldwide, the average human life expectancy was 72 years old in 2016.
For women, it was 74.2 years, and for men, this was 69.8 years.
This has decreased in recent years.
Here in the United States, the life expectancy was 77.3 years. This is the lowest it has been since 2003.
Males — 74.5 years. Females — 80.2 years. Whew.
So here we are, living as we do, and getting older by the minute.
Our physical senses are dulling as we go.
Yet, it seems our emotional and spiritual senses continue to heighten, lifting us higher with each new lesson. That is. If we’ve been paying attention.
May we always see what we need to see, hear what we need to know, and feel what we need to feel.
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“The afternoon knows what the morning never suspected.”
― Robert Frost
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“Wisdom comes with winters”
― Oscar Wilde
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“It’s paradoxical that the idea of living a long life appeals to everyone, but the idea of getting old doesn’t appeal to anyone.”
― Andy Rooney
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Grow. Stop. Grow in a different way.
