Honor Thy Body and Strength will Never Get Old
“I feel like I have moved a mountain.” “You have.” “But I feel like I can still do so much more.” “You will.”
Sixty push-ups and sixty sit-ups. According to www.GoArmy.Com, the Army Physical Fitness Test or (APFT) requires enlisted men (17-21) to be able to do 42 push-ups within 2 minutes. Not 50 or 60. However, the aim of the test is to see how many push-ups an enlisted person can complete in 2 minutes. Likewise with sit-ups 53 is the minimum number required in two minutes. Sitting at my desk at over 60 years of age, that number seems small. I am certainly sure this may come off as arrogant, but it’s truly not my intention. Still, 50 push-ups in a minute should be a lifetime benchmark. I mean have we unknowingly moved the benchmark and likewise, has getting older established a new benchmark? Well I know for sure that we are not getting any younger, or are we?
This morning I got up. Then I got dressed. After that I had a cup of coffee, some toast and I went to work. The next day, I got up. Then I got dressed. I had a cup of coffee, some toast and I went to work. Then the day after that, I got up. I got dressed. I had a cup of coffee, some toast and I went to work. . . . . . . If this sounds like a line out of a Cheech and Chong movie, it is. However, truth be told, this is what many of us have done for decades. In reality, that robotic routine is an incomparable discipline. As a gym rat, I have always been told that muscle has memory. It’s meant to suggest, that when you train your muscles when you are young, there exists a greater chance they will always remember their strength when you get older. Likewise, as going to work requires immense strength, the more you do it the better the chance that your body will become accustomed to doing it. Regardless it still requires an inhuman effort; the idea of going to work for 30 years or more is like moving a mountain daily. Every day your body, men and women alike, is subjected to immense mental and physical pressure, alone one would be enough. However, combined they seem overwhelming and yet the human body remains unyielding. As a direct result of this relentless pressure on the feet, the back, the shoulders, the neck, the knees and the hands we wear scars like medals on a general’s chest. No matter the pain, we just keep moving. For many of us, after 30 plus years of gameful employment just like a warrior engaged in battle, we have become stronger. Empowered to do more.
We honor our bodies by using them more often, in the pursuit of work. The question at hand is complex; Is aging a matter of working too much, or not enough? We, the sexagenarians, have challenged our bodies for six decades. However, what is often not discussed are the Falls. This may seem like a demure subject, but it's importance and the effect it has on aging can not be overlooked. The sheer number of times we have fallen from birth to this point in our lives is incomprehensible. Although it is impossible to accurately know this number, with use of presumptions, I will make an educated guess or guesstimate. Following the course of infant development I will try and graph the number of times a child falls and how this relationship affects us as adults. At about four to six months of age a baby will attempt to lift its head and propel themselves, mostly only to the left or right, or to roll. It’s funny now, but as a parent we regard this as a remarkable feat until the inevitable occurs and they bump their heads on something. Nothing too hard, but hard enough to give some perspective. Then at about 10 months of age, and again I am only guesstimating, there comes this desire to stand. To view this act of courage and strength by a baby in real time makes me understand why it is that we, at times, seem to root for the underdog. Note I omitted crawling, because it’s hard to fall, when you’re on all fours. However, standing, that’s altogether different; because now, what goes up, will come down. It's just about at this time that gravity starts to play a significant role in life. Guesstimating, from about 10 months of age to a year old (a 4-month period). A child has fallen, hopefully not hard, about 15 times in a day. At about a 12 to 14 months old, walking, for many, unassisted, is becoming the norm. Painfully too, is falling. Here is where the number of times a baby falls seems to reduce from about 15 times a day to about, 10 times a day. That number also reflects the number of times when we don't see that they have fallen.
In this brief life, a child not yet 16 months old has fallen down in the span of 6 months to 8 months, about 3,000 times within that seven-month period. Do the math, 7 months, or 240 days X 13. It's at this point when it begins to appear as parents and or guardians, as though we are constantly picking up our children. For the sake of this discussion I must add that these are all guesstimates, not verified facts. From 1 year or 12 months to 2 years or 24 months of age; children are now attempting to run, and frequently. This is when it gets troublesome. Because it is impossible to provide a conclusive number, I am going to use my history as a parent of five children, all adults with their own children now, as my barometer. The infant has now developed into a toddler, and that 1-year-old unsteady baby is now entering into the terrible two’s...! Looking back at this time at my own children, especially the “runners”. They fell about 4 to 5 times a day during this period or about 1,200 times in that 16 to 24 month time span. This when I will refer to this event of falling down as the “falling count” which roughly now has eclipsed about 4,200 times. It gets better, because from about 2 years old to 5 years old, that number tends to drop. I surmise the attributing factor to the reduced number of falls is that it is beginning to hurt.
So, in that span it might be safe to say that children fall about 2 times a day or 2,910 times in three years. However, from five years of age to ten-years-old something magical happens. In a word, "Sports". Now falling is a hazard of the game. From baseball, to volleyball, to football, to track & field, to field hockey, lacrosse, well maybe not so much swimming. Falling has now become a part of their life. You are now an athlete and the first lesson in athletics and athletic competitions is not only learning and accepting falling. At this juncture it’s probably safe to say that you have fallen from 5 years of age to 10 years about an average of 5 times a day, even if your child is playing Tee-Ball. That’s a whopping 3,560 times you have fallen in now a five year span. However, from 10 years to 20 years of age, especially if you continue to be athletic, your falling count again increases and average about 10 times a day. That’s taking into consideration that on Sunday’s you do rest. Altogether, in summation, within that ten-year span the number of times you have fallen is now about 35,000.00 times. When it’s all added up, from 8 months of age to 20, our bodies, with special attention given to anyone who competes or has competed in athletics, the "falling count" is roughly more than 46,000 times. That’s just in 20 years of living. Take a breath.
Indeed, the human body is a marvelous machine. Even with some design flaws, such as an epidermis that fails to adequately protect us from heat or cold. The human body does have one a particular ability like nothing in nature, even with our limitations; survivability. I mean, beyond that of turtles and a few other animals, nothing can rival the human body's longevity, resilience, perseverance, and adaptability. Don’t look now, but yes, we still have another 40 years of falling to go. If within the first 20 years of life, we on average, have physically fallen to the ground over 46,000.00 times; it is safe to predict that the next 40 years will take an unimaginable physical toll on our bodies. It is at this point, work for most of us will now become the most dominant force for the next four decades, and the strength required to get up after falling down, is now ingrained in our muscle memory. We know intrinsically that we must get up, that we must continue to go forward; that work especially for pay, again for the most of us, will be an absolute necessity. Yes, education, although being very important, will not be a deciding factor vs working or not working; strength, however, will. We therefore honor our bodies through work. Work begins to provide the essential fuel for this machine to be at its very best. With all of that being said, work does not differentiate between what has been defined as physical or manual labor vs white collar. Work will always be, simply stated; work.
This drudgery created by either manual labor or white-collar labor, maligns the strength needed to survive the next forty years of doing either. Yes, there is no question that manual labor or the use of your body to move, push, or carry an object or objects is gut wrenchingly difficult. Think of a physical stress of 9 or 10-hour shift on the body of a coal miner, a meat packer, a warehouse worker, a brick mason or construction worker, a delivery driver or a window washer. If I am leaving out some professions I apologize, but there are so many working professions, that to list them all I would indeed fill an entire page. Yet and still, physical labor is nonetheless laborious, dirty, backbreaking and in many instances dangerous. Even with all of that, the human body will still respond, it will adapt. I will reference Sir Isaac Newton and his First Law of Motion; “an object at rest will stay at rest, and an object in motion will stay in motion with the same velocity (speed and direction) unless acted upon by an unbalanced force.” Transferring that theory to a more practical application, “a body at work will remain at work and a body at rest will remain at rest.” The body at work, regardless of whether its working at a bank, or as a front desk receptionist, or web designer, or even blurring the lines of manual skilled labor vs white collar work such as a surgeon. Whom I believe we must admit, regardless of the amount of money they are paid, they are on their feet for hours at a time. The strength that it takes to do that for the next forty years is yes unbelievable. Our bodies proudly perform these task as if programmed with unrelenting agenda, to continue working to achieve these goals. Only derailed by sickness (mental and\or physical), or an abstract unwillingness to try, and of course death. Using this I attest that there is an undeniable truth: We 60 years and older, are The New Millennials. We are the best employees, because without question and\or exception, we will work and hard. We are by program and design to succeed; emphatically stated it is our conditioning.
My grandfather was a man of barely 5 feet 2 inches tall, held a job working for a department store called Krauss, in New Orleans. He held that position, and this needs to be referenced, because this was the Jim Crow south, for 30 years, diligently. There is no indignity for working. Truth be told, this has become the most horrific misnomer ever, as if there is some shroud or scent, because of the work you do. Quite notably, my grandmother, the late Mrs. Ethel Barton, spent nearly 20 plus years as a house matron for a family in New Orleans. Diligently. I vividly remember when I would visit New Orleans as a teen; using her car, an old gray Ford Ventura to pick her up after a long day, then driving back home to the house in Gentilly. All the while in the sweltering New Orleans heat, whilst not being allowed to let the windows down, as she didn’t like the air blowing on her. (Laughing) Another example is my late father-in-law Mr. R. Lavergne, who worked for three plus decades for the NYC Transit Authority. Battered and bent, I personally watched and witnessed, as he would sometimes work double shifts, in the subway. He worked through and during the hottest summers, the balmiest springs, the coolest fall days and evenings, and the worst of the New York winters. Diligently. My own father began a tireless labor history as a truck driver, delivering water in New Orleans for Ozone Water Company. From there a relocation to New York when I was but a child of three, came two decades as a truck driver and carpet delivery man for E.J. Korvetts in Long Island, then on to driving for a construction company out of Hauppauge, Long Island; then another ten plus year in the construction business. Diligently. I watched as they all honored their bodies through tireless effort. The immeasurable strength that their bodies provided them was my honor to witness and learn from. This is my definition of Honor Thy Body.
This is a strength that began at birth and over time, for many of us, grew even stronger. However, we at a time and age when it was once understood and defined as "retirement". We, Us, You and I, are finding, reinventing, new methods of extending work. More, we are not just being successful at our jobs, but often creating new careers where ones didn't already exist. Which is why I have defined us as The New Millennials. Working past sixty years old isn't because we did something wrong; No conversely, we did something right. We may have reached a peak, but we our lives have not. The truth is, unlike previous generations, there is still so much more that we can do. So much more to be accomplished. Fitting that at 60 years old, we should be looking at what more there is to do, as opposed to thinking and feeling that enough has already been done.
Maybe it’s time to rename sexagenarians, to Sexy Genarians!
If you have or know of anyone having stories discussing, “Honor thy Body…and Strength Never gets Old.” Please feel to share your thoughts and or comments.
