I went to the neighborhood senior center for my usual work out. I am continually amazed both that I am old enough to be allowed into such a place—and humbled by how much better the eighty-year-olds can be than me at reaching the floor with their palms and balancing on one leg.
But today when I arrived, there was someone new. Settled heavily on the sit-up bench huddled an old man whose body was wide and inert. My mind could not make sense of where he ended and his sweat clothes began, piling about him on the bench like a mound of unsorted laundry.
But then, by chance, our eyes met and something unspoken but important passed between us.
He hoisted himself up and walked one labored step at a time towards the treadmill.
“My second mile of the day,” he said. Then we nodded to one another with utmost respect.
Increasingly, I encounter others my age and older who along with physical diminishment emanate the aura of self-acceptance. We may not run marathons any more, but we do what we can. And when we do, we radiate. I am humbled in the presence of this numinous beauty—not the prettiness of the young, but expressive of something the young cannot duplicate. It is as if time has the potential to erode us into something wondrous. This is a transformation that cannot be forced, only allowed.
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