Shocked by aging process

@bjk3 Good morning! How to answer this … how to answer this and yet keep it in line with the topis ("Shocked by the Aging Process") … mmm? That's a toughie. I won't say I'm "shocked"––more like "astonished"––when I think about how much age (and in my case, too, peripheral neuropathy) has sped up the change in me from "ability" to "inability." A couple of performance examples that demonstrate this? When I was in my late 50s I played George in Albee's "Virginia Woolf," without a competitor the biggest part I've ever played (number of lines). It took me only a few weeks of morning coffee and kitchen pacing to commit all four acts to memory. Today, I blanch to think I'd once had the ability to learn so many lines in so short a time. Rolling forward to the present? The next-to-the-last show I did was the musical "Ragtime," in which I played the part of Grandfather (what else? :-): a comparative handful of short lines (no big speeches) which, no matter, demanded seemingly endless cups of coffee and weeks of kitchen pacing to memorize. Does that help to illustrate, from my working life, "Shocked by the Aging Process" (with a dose of neuropathy thrown in)? It does me! 🙂 –Ray (@ray666)

@ray666 I feel your pain! It certainly was a wake up call to find myself in the position of having a young soul and a body that is wracked with pains and falling apart.

@seniormiz

Me too.

Hi, @seniormiz. I have the greatest empathy for those of us PNers who are, as you say, wracked with pain. I'm blessed with the kind of PN that doesn't cause mee pain but has a devilish field-day with my balance. Although I'd just as soon be rid of my PN, I'd rather be wobbly than be tortured by PN pain. My heart goes out to all those whose PN has them wracked with pain. What I do to keep my performer's soul in good spirits is memorize poems; I memorize them and then recite them aloud (unless I see that my cat has placed his paws over his ears 🙂 ). It's nowhere near the challenge and pleasure of being in a show, but it's something. And sometimes even "something" is deserving of our gratitude. // I wish you all the best, seniormiz. Cheers from the Rockies! –Ray (@ray666)