Another column that hits the bull's-eye, Ragen! Thank you, as always, for your common sense and clarity.
In my study I have a picture that an old friend found and sent me recently. It's of the 19-year-old me on horseback, on a forest trail. I'm slender, my hair is thick and shiny, I'm obviously happy and energetic and healthy and life was good. Would I like to feel now, at age 65, the way I felt then? Well, YES!!! Sure I'd like that. But my aches and pains and joint stiffness and fatigue and so on and so forth have nothing whatsoever to do with my weight, and everything to do with my age, congestive heart failure, osteoarthritis, and various other ailments I won't go into here.
If anyone ever finds the Fountain of Youth and figures out how to give the 65-year-old me back my 19-year-old body, I'll be the first in line to drink that water. Until then, I'm not foolish enough to think that losing weight (even if it were possible long-term) would be the magic cure for age.
I found a pic of me on horseback in my youth. Last ride 1990, age 34, sized 12/14; resume riding 2019, size 20/22. With a gap during the pandemic, riding again, size 18/20, age 67.
The horse is a remedy for aches and pains. We cannot get back the fertile, richly hormonal bodies of youth, or all our teeth, or the shining dark hair, but I promise you riding a gentle horse will help relieve orthopedic and rheumatic troubles, aches, and pains - and be a pleasure, too, of course.
Another column that hits the bull's-eye, Ragen! Thank you, as always, for your common sense and clarity.
In my study I have a picture that an old friend found and sent me recently. It's of the 19-year-old me on horseback, on a forest trail. I'm slender, my hair is thick and shiny, I'm obviously happy and energetic and healthy and life was good. Would I like to feel now, at age 65, the way I felt then? Well, YES!!! Sure I'd like that. But my aches and pains and joint stiffness and fatigue and so on and so forth have nothing whatsoever to do with my weight, and everything to do with my age, congestive heart failure, osteoarthritis, and various other ailments I won't go into here.
If anyone ever finds the Fountain of Youth and figures out how to give the 65-year-old me back my 19-year-old body, I'll be the first in line to drink that water. Until then, I'm not foolish enough to think that losing weight (even if it were possible long-term) would be the magic cure for age.
I found a pic of me on horseback in my youth. Last ride 1990, age 34, sized 12/14; resume riding 2019, size 20/22. With a gap during the pandemic, riding again, size 18/20, age 67.
The horse is a remedy for aches and pains. We cannot get back the fertile, richly hormonal bodies of youth, or all our teeth, or the shining dark hair, but I promise you riding a gentle horse will help relieve orthopedic and rheumatic troubles, aches, and pains - and be a pleasure, too, of course.