I was walking down the street one day when I saw a large sign: \u201cBody Shop.\u201d I stopped and thought, \u201cHow interesting! Maybe I can get a new body instead of this 96-year-old one. My current body doesn\u2019t see so well, hear so well, or walk as well. Maybe I can get one that does all these things better.\u201d I walked in and asked, \u201cWhat kind of bodies do you have?\u201d They responded that they were an auto shop, where you could get an oil change, a tire alignment, or even exchange your car for a newer model. I asked if they could fix my body; they replied no, but they knew of a place that could. After they gave me the contact information, I was on my way.<\/p>\n
Sure enough, the body shop they referred me to sells bodies, exchanging new ones for the one you have. I asked them how this worked. They told me that they take your old body (as in hologram) and give you a new one, which becomes permanent. They asked me what kind of body I was interested in. I said a 20-year-old model. They replied that they had a few options available. How wonderful! \u201cWhat does it come with?\u201d I asked. I was informed that it comes with a head, two arms, and two legs. Then I inquired if I could get one without the head and keep my own. Unfortunately, the heads are included. I wanted to know if the new head could be unscrewed in order to keep my own. They replied: \u201cNo, it\u2019s part of the body.\u201d So I wanted to know, \u201cWhat is inside this young head?\u201d They answered: \u201cNot much! It hasn\u2019t been anywhere, read anything, or seen anything.\u201d I worried that all my experiences would be lost\u2026 the relationships that I\u2019ve been in, the trips I have taken, the thoughts I\u2019ve had, the books I\u2019ve read\u2014all would be gone. That just didn\u2019t feel right. Since I couldn\u2019t get the new body and keep my head with all its memories, I decided to keep my old body with my head intact. After all, my head may still have some miles left.<\/p>\n
Now that I\u2019m stuck with this old body, I need a new philosophy of life. The reason for it is that I must minimize the constant urgency of having to make decisions; \u201cDo I go or do I stay home?\u201d That decision should not be made on an ad hoc basis, but as a way of living one\u2019s life as one ages. I am not the same person who went everywhere, did everything, and met everyone. I am a new person with whom I am in the process of getting acquainted, one who prefers to stay in my recliner, read, write, or take a nap. Actually, I don\u2019t take naps; naps take me. I don\u2019t really know this new me very well, having never been this old before. She surprises me. In all candor, I am not sure I like her.<\/p>\n
I always have a choice: whether to push myself to keep going as before \u2014 in order to avoid my world becoming narrower\u2014 or do I in fact enjoy the quiet time with fewer obligations, without responsibilities? If I do opt to accept the invitation to a dinner party, to give a talk, to go to a play, a concert, or a movie, I most likely will enjoy it. If I don\u2019t accept, I am relieved that I didn\u2019t go and relish being quiet at home. My favorite events are the ones that get canceled.<\/p>\n
So which side of me do I listen to? I am often tired and my level of energy is quickly depleted. As we grow older, we need to decide at which point we should accept a more circumscribed life. My suggestion to my younger friends is \u201cas long as you can\u2026 go everywhere, do everything, explore while you are able to and then when you\u2019re older, you can elect to opt-out because you\u2019ve been there, done that, seen it and heard it. Life is forever calling loudly, but one does not always need to answer.\u201d<\/p>\n
Old age is a privilege denied to a lot of people. It is a time in my life that I don\u2019t want to miss. It is not uphill anymore, but over that hill with a lovely view of the best years yet to come.<\/p>\n
Natasha Josefowitz is the author of 21 books. She currently resides at White Sands La Jolla Retirement Community in La Jolla. Copyright \u00a9 <\/span>2023. Natasha Josefowitz. All rights reserved.<\/i><\/p>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" I was walking down the street one day when I saw a large sign: \u201cBody Shop.\u201d I stopped and thought, \u201cHow interesting! Maybe I can get a new body instead of this 96-year-old one. My current body doesn\u2019t see so well, hear so well, or walk as well. Maybe I can get one that does […]<\/p>","protected":false},"author":1482,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_seopress_robots_primary_cat":"11552","_seopress_titles_title":"","_seopress_titles_desc":"I was walking down the street one day when I saw a large sign: \u201cBody Shop.\u201d I stopped and thought, \u201cHow interesting! Maybe I can get a new body instead of this 96-year-old one. My current body doesn\u2019t see so well, hear so well, or walk as well. Maybe I can get one that does all these things better.\u201d","_seopress_robots_index":"","jnews-multi-image_gallery":[],"jnews_single_post":{"source_name":"","source_url":"","via_name":"","via_url":"","override_template":"0","override":[{"template":"3","single_blog_custom":"","parallax":"1","fullscreen":"1","layout":"right-sidebar","sidebar":"default-sidebar","second_sidebar":"default-sidebar","sticky_sidebar":"1","share_position":"top","share_float_style":"share-monocrhome","show_share_counter":"1","show_view_counter":"1","show_featured":"1","show_post_meta":"1","show_post_author":"1","show_post_author_image":"1","show_post_date":"1","post_date_format":"default","post_date_format_custom":"Y\/m\/d","show_post_category":"1","show_post_reading_time":"1","post_reading_time_wpm":"300","show_zoom_button":"1","zoom_button_out_step":"2","zoom_button_in_step":"3","show_post_tag":"1","show_prev_next_post":"1","show_popup_post":"1","number_popup_post":"1","show_author_box":"1","show_post_related":"1","show_inline_post_related":"0"}],"override_image_size":"0","image_override":[{"single_post_thumbnail_size":"crop-500","single_post_gallery_size":"crop-500"}],"trending_post":"0","trending_post_position":"meta","trending_post_label":"Trending","sponsored_post":"0","sponsored_post_label":"Sponsored by","sponsored_post_name":"","sponsored_post_url":"","sponsored_post_logo_enable":"0","sponsored_post_logo":"","sponsored_post_desc":"","disable_ad":"0"},"jnews_primary_category":{"id":"","hide":""},"jnews_social_meta":{"fb_title":"","fb_description":"","fb_image":"","twitter_title":"","twitter_description":"","twitter_image":""},"jnews_override_counter":{"override_view_counter":"0","view_counter_number":"0","override_share_counter":"0","share_counter_number":"0","override_like_counter":"0","like_counter_number":"0","override_dislike_counter":"0","dislike_counter_number":"0"},"footnotes":""},"categories":[11552],"tags":[12537,12992,14527],"class_list":["post-318208","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-opinion","tag-la-jolla","tag-natasha-josefowitz","tag-white-sands"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/test.sdnews.com\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/318208","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/test.sdnews.com\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/test.sdnews.com\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/test.sdnews.com\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1482"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/test.sdnews.com\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=318208"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/test.sdnews.com\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/318208\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/test.sdnews.com\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=318208"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/test.sdnews.com\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=318208"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/test.sdnews.com\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=318208"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}