Aging vs. Getting older

I don't follow sports much, but the headline caught my eye anyway: "Aging Action Star Seeks Kickboxing Match". This was followed by the opening line that began "49-year-old Jean-Claude Van Damme..."

That the star in question was Van Damme did not surprise me. But that he (and therefore I) was considered at 49 to be "aging" was a little shock. I know I'm getting older: my joints don't always cooperate, I suspect that my current hair color is more salt than pepper, and every so often it strikes me that the person I just thought of as a "kid" is 30 years old.

But aging?

Then again, when cheese is old, I don't throw it out; when cheese is aged, I pay three times more for it. When wood is old, it becomes firewood. When it is aged, it ends up on the Antiques Road Show.

There is a richness about being aged that speaks of depth in our life experience. It hints that the passage of years has produced in us a rare spirit instead of vinegar. The word "aged" sparks images of wisdom, wealth of character, what in Spanish we might call "perfeccionamiento": attaining a more perfect condition.

My mother still plays the piano despite her nearly 80 years and arthritic fingers. My mother-in-law, who turns 86 this year, writes a weekly column for her local newspaper. My octogenarian father has circled the world and has a host of stories to share. A colleague, who is approaching his 65th wedding anniversary, is at the top of his professional game. Their years are etched in their bodies and engraved on their souls and they have aged with character.

I never really thought much about aging. My granddaughters have assured me that I won't be old until I'm 75. Until then, I'm just "getting older". Now, it feels perhaps appropriate to get up and and write to Steve Colfield, the blogger who wrote that headline, and tell him I have decided to skip getting older altogether, and just become gracefully aged. But my knees pop when I get up and it scares the dog.

Maybe instead I can just sit back, embrace aging and let it turn me into a character.