The Home Stretch

I turn 71 on January 13. A recent essay from Pam Erwin Moreton caught my attention. Here’s my take on her observations about an honest look forward.

This is the home stretch. Not the end. Just the part where pretending stops working.

Aging doesn’t begin by hurting the body. It begins by dismantling illusions. Children grow and drift into lives of their own. That’s not abandonment. It’s successful parenting. Health, once invisible, reveals itself as the structure holding everything up. It forces awareness of limitations and guides more of our decisions. Institutions give the illusion of security, but daily life teaches us otherwise.

What remains is responsibility.

Children bring joy, but they do not inoculate against loneliness. Love survives distance; presence does not. Health, once taken for granted, demands attention, movement, rest, restraint. Money, stripped of fantasy, becomes less about accumulation and more about dignity. We keep focused on the ability to choose, to stand on our own feet.

Joy, too, must be reclaimed. Waiting for others to supply it is an efficient way to lose it. The small, repeatable pleasures, a quiet morning, a book, a favorite song. These become acts of self-reliance.

Aging offers no exemption from strength. Helplessness repels, resilience invites. The past, however lovely, is not a place to live. Peace and freedom remain hard-won and must be guarded. And being open to new ideas, the essential concept of lifelong learning, keeps the mind from stiffening before the body does.

All of us entering the extra innings ultimately realize no one is coming to rescue us. That is not a threat. It is clarity.

“All Things Must Pass” is one of my favorite George Harrison albums. That timeless phrase is a reminder that if you can still stand up for yourself, and you can, a quiet, durable freedom can still be very much yours.