The Philosophy of Aging

I shared an online article with my father:

http://www.usnews.com/blogs/professors-guide/2009/05/20/17-ways-college-campuses-are-changing.html

He commented that he has already experienced at least part of the changes, with more to come. Some of his colleagues, "old-time profs," are bowing out because of the changes -- they don't want to change. He added, "Change is not comfortable to one desiring stability in life and an unchanging personal world. I appreciate that point-of-view at age 74!"

The philosophy of aging is interesting to me, also. I have concluded that as we age we find ways to succeed in daily living that work no matter what happens in the ever-changing marketplace, so "change for change's sake" becomes less and less necessary as we age; at the same time, there are aspects of our lives that we enjoy changing, which may or may not coincide with our successful daily habits; therefore, aging and changing meet only when we find the intersection of the two a fun learning experience. Even I, who grew up during the heyday of the computer revolution, find some technological changes unenjoyable simply because they don't add anything useful or fun to my daily habits but that doesn't mean it excludes enjoyment for others. Live and let live, respect each other's differences, etc.

I have three new books to read (in addition to the used books I haven't finished and the Linux texts I'm reading to prepare for the Linux course I will teach this summer):

• Out of Our Heads: why you are not your brain, and other lessons from the biology of consciousness by Alva Noë
• The Ego Tunnel: the science of the mind and the myth of the self by Thomas Metzinger
• Selfless Insight: Zen and the meditative transformations of consciousness by James H. Austin

By the way, let me remind those of you who haven't run cross country or long distance races in a while that you get out of a race what you put into preparation. I haven't run any long distances in two years so three days after jogging 6.2 miles (10 km), my leg muscles are still sore and I'm loving every minute of it - glad to be alive and relatively healthy even if I look like I'm walking on stilts. lol

During my freshman year in college, at Georgia Tech, a residence hallmate of mine was a long distance runner. He grew up in Boca Raton, Florida, and told us about an interesting habit of his. He'd run along the beach, using sand as a form of weight resistance training. During tourist season, he made sure he ran before tourists typically got up in the morning. Then he'd "rest" in a tourist beach area, wearing a sad look on his face (remember he was 15 to 17 years of age at the time). Young women would come up to him and ask him why he was so sad. He'd concoct a story about breaking up with a girlfriend and how despondent he felt, thinking about drowning himself in the ocean. Inevitably, he'd end up making out or having sex with the women. Another habit of his I still remember - he distrusted the sanitation of public toilet seats so he'd stand on a toilet seat and squat over the toilet bowl to defecate. We laughed that when we walked into the men's toilet and saw blond hair sticking up above a toilet stall, we knew who was taking a dump. I wonder if he still has these habits in middle age.

Back to my stack of reading!

But first, a thanks to Zazzy's on Airport Road in Huntsville for carrying copies of Huntsville Event magazine where I'm featured on page 40 of the May/June issue, in the section named An Irish Evening. You can see me wearing a Guinness hat I bought in a shop next to the O'Connell Street bridge in Dublin, Ireland, on St. Patrick's Day (I'm also wearing a green Celtic-patterned tie my sister bought me in Ireland).

Hard to believe my oldest niece gets married in two days ("the day after tomorrow," she finally gets to say today!). She's marrying a great fellow - a secondary school football/baseball coach and history teacher. Seems like she was just born yesterday! Or maybe the day before yesterday, anyway.