After a long, hard, year it appears I’ve reached the other side of a really bad time.

Just in time to realize I’m 12 months closer to the end of it all.

In youth, not only is The End a very, very, very long way off, but the concept of recovery is central to the young man’s concept of invincibility. When I broke a leg, hurt a knee, twisted a neck, their was an awareness that taking time off and resting would take a few days, weeks, often just a few hours, and then life would be back to normal. A year later, life would go on as if nothing happened.

After 70, there is no such process. A week, a month, even a few days is not the panacea of the youthful, but the crossing off of days leading to the inevitable: there is no future where life would be back to normal “as if nothing ever happened”.

A famous, 70 year old comedian just said it best at his birthday: “nothing matters, it’ll all be over soon.”

Hm. The hardest part of knowing and accepting this is how to keep it from affecting the few, remaining, hours/days/months/years. And if things never get better, they do not stay the same so the only other option is how bad it can it get.

Watch, here, for some evidence of whether or not I learn to squeeze the maximum amount of joy out of the life left me.