Opus 2022-180: Ode to Old: Playing Airplane Again

One of the standard joke lines about the elderly is that they take a lot of naps.  It is not really a joke; it is an observation.  Of course if I go back to my working days I started wanting to fall asleep on my drive home from work years before I reached retirement age.

I know that I am tired a lot more than I used to be.  I think other old people are the same.  I am sure there are many reasons but one occurred to me today when I was spilling popcorn.  I did it twice in a few minutes.  I am quite capable of making popcorn without spilling it but you would not have known that today.  I am also capable of mowing the lawn without running into low branches, but I already visited that scenario.  

I spilled the popcorn because I was not paying attention.  As we get older some of the automatic things that we did in the foolishness of youth and the assumptions of middle age no longer happen so well on auto-pilot.  As a result we are forced to put more energy into paying attention.  That drains the reserve we have for staying awake in the afternoon.  I have watched people a decade older than me feed themselves and it is almost like watching a wrestling match.  If you have ever done that you may have found yourself straining and struggling with the combatants.  There comes an age when the toddler feeding game of “airplane” becomes a reality again.  It takes a lot of concentration to make a safe landing when the spoon is full of soup.

I guess I need a nap.

homo unius libri