Slaughterhouse 15

START TIME: 9:45 PM
END TIME: 10:52 PM
WORD COUNT: 541

"Cultural axioms tell us that we’ll never be able to physically feel like we did when we were younger. Do you think it’s possible to feel physically younger as we grow older?"

“Youth is wasted on the young.” –George Bernard Shaw

I have a few different takes on this. First off, I can say from personal experience that it’s possible. I feel younger at 33 than I did at 23, and a lot of that has to do with the fact that I’m 80 pounds lighter. I have more energy than I did then, and there’s a new sense of possibility that I didn’t have from a physical standpoint at the time. So in a very literal sense, that’s true.

That said, there’s a certain amount of wear and tear that your body is forced to absorb, mentally as well as physically. Right now I can run for 13 miles after two or seven gin and tonics, but I know that moment will pass. I know that when I was 15 and playing in a tennis tournament six miles away, riding my bicycle to the event and making the conscious decision to tank the last set so I’d have something for the ride home, I couldn’t even think of doing that now (and seeing as I now own a vehicle and could drive it, I wouldn't have to try). I remember playing basketball every morning for months, for hours at a time, leaving my legs in so much pain that I would crawl out of bed to the Advil bottle. I haven’t taken more than 10 Advil per year for the past three years.

While I was doing that, though, something I wasn’t burdened down by was the nagging obligation that I should be doing something else, like being a parent or a network technician or better organized or more productive. I wasn’t putting off chores or laundry or all of the nagging little responsibilities that come with being an adult. Years ago, when planning a rather outsize evening and facing some good-natured criticism about it being a shade excessive, I pointed out that, sooner than we all cared to be, I’d be an adult with bills and insurance and responsibilities, and I would regret the things that I didn’t do when I had the money and time to do so far more than any momentary financial inconvenience.

The same holds true with exercise. There are workouts I don’t do because other more important stuff comes up; stuff for my kids that I want to do, stuff for my office that I have to do, stuff for other parts of my life. The old days of basketball from 10:30 until 2:30 in the afternoon, show up at work at 4 and kill 2 hours? Those days are gone. I’m not that young any more. So what’s keeping me from feeling that young isn’t a physical limitation, but the trappings of responsibility and adulthood. These can be overcome with insomnia, but that takes its toll as well.

So ultimately, the endeavors you take to make the physical gains that would make you feel younger are ultimately overwhelmed by the responsibilities you have as an adult. All you can hope for is that zero-g feeling in your stomach while riding a bicycle downhill, a seeing-eye backhand down the line, or nailing a turnaround jumper from the corner. For a few seconds, the other stuff disappears, and therein lies the payoff.