Dear LPG,  

I find it really interesting to hear the first thing that an older person will say when you ask them to describe themselves.  Most will start with their name after which some will state the obvious and gravitate to facts that anyone who is seeing you for the first time can usually work out for themselves.  They will state their gender or where they are from but as we get older our state of health is often a subject that can be part of this agenda too. 

We oldies often have lots of things wrong with us and there will be ailments that are obvious by just looking.  You can see a backache, hip ache or aching legs after a person takes a few steps and a walking stick is a giveaway.  So many of us have medical problems that, if we are not careful, we can let define us.   

The aches and pains that older people suffer can be a constant reminder that whatever else is going on in their lives they have been more healthy, and perhaps it is because we often can think back and remember the day when some of those aches and pains originated.  I am talking about those self-inflicted accidents and injuries which are the direct result of some really foolish antic that we might have avoided if we knew then what we know now.  

I think that sometimes leaves those conversation that all too often degenerate into discussions about our aches and pains focusing on the consequences of getting old, and if there are three people talking about them, talk can be drawn to that point where each participant is trying to explain why their resulting health issues are more acute than the others being discussed.  


I would like to remind all our long-suffering readers that many of those twinges that we now feel with every movement we make are the result of something that we really enjoyed doing as younger people.  Those sports activities that we did so regularly and got so much joy from doing as we added all the resulting wear and tear to our muscles and bones, and the one-off really silly things that we try when we are young enough to think that we can do anything.  

There will be the big ones that left you with broken limbs and scars that will always be there, and which appeared to heal until you get older, and the ones that appeared really temporary when you were younger but, oh how you are aware of them now!  

I am not talking about the absolutely stupid (although the definition of stupid has always been open to interpretation). It can be so easy to look back and say, that if you knew then what you know now, you would never have done that, but what would life be without the things that you did in the past.  They are the things that have a lot to do with defining who you are now and if you never did them, no matter how silly, you would not be the person you are now.  

So perhaps when we are all having that little complaining session that can be part of a discussion of a meeting of older minds, we should be putting a little more focus on the underlying causes of our pain both physical and historical.  The latter will make for a much more interesting conversation and detract for just a while from the mechanics of the resulting affliction.  

Just a thought…  


MA. Deptford