James: Growing old is not for the faint of heart. While working to maintain and improve my deteriorating physical condition some other things are showing up mentally. For example, I have a complete loss of smell which can be an early sign of Alzheimer’s.
The best thing I know to do is to keep using the af method which helps me to deal with these things as they arise. (link)
Hi James,
A famous American comedian, Joan Rivers, once famously joked about the declining milestones of aging, humorously breaking down what happens (via exaggeration) decade by decade:
• At 40: Your eyesight begins to go.
• At 50: Your mind starts to decline.
• At 60: Flatulence (farting) becomes a regular issue.
• At 70: You finally lose your sense of smell (which she joked was a mercy).
• At 72 / 77: She joked that when her birthday cake was brought out, it took her a full year to blow out the candles because she had no breath left. (link)
She died in September 2014 age 81, so knew herself well what she was talking about. As such losing one’s sense of smell seems a regular occurrence of senectitude and not necessarily “an early sign of Alzheimer’s”. It’s for the “faint of heart” to anticipate all sorts of additional complexities when you can instead take the challenges of growing old – the natural progressing of senescence – as they actually occur with a good dose of humour and appreciative wonder about life and the amazing universe we live in.
To be friend to yourself in your own ageing process (apart from applying the Actualism method) I can recommend some of her outpourings of dark humour in the Michael Parkinson Shows, for instance:
Remember, Illegitimi Non Carborandum.
Cheers Vineeto