By Butch Freedman
My wife and I recently decided to give up red meat. We’ll eat more fish, and go vegetarian some days. Health, you know. It’s important at our advancing age. I think more and more about this process of aging lately. There’s not much I can do about the days and years slipping by, but I can make the most of the time remaining and do my best to stay reasonably healthy—both in mind and body. It’s not always easy, this aging thing. The more I rail and labor against it, the more my body and brain tells me they are winning. I do the New York Times “Spelling Bee” every morning. And don’t quit till I reach “genius” level. Some days that can take a long time. But I’m retired, time is both aplenty and limited. Ironic. The other day I found myself confused about which buttons to push on the TV remote. Something I regularly do almost automatically. It startled me. Though the sequences returned quickly, it felt like yet another blow, another reminder of the synapses shutting down.
I also try to do something physical every day to stay in shape. I watch my weight and my diet, and go to the gym. I also still surf when the weather allows. And Bev and I go for frequent long walks. Still the aches and pains persist. And I worry about when I will no longer be able to keep up these routines. Old cars are not seen on the road very often. I’m not complaining (well, maybe some), I know I’ve been lucky. I’ve had my share of surgeries and complicated illnesses, but here I am still standing. And I’m grateful for every day when I’m still able and interested to wake up and check out the weather and the state of the waves and kiss my lovely wife. Some of my friends are not faring so well. Every week it seems another pal lets me know of a major set-back, a likely final inning. It’s sad, though not unexpected. And sooner or later it will strike even closer to home. I think I’ll be ready, and face my own demise with some peace of mind. You never know, though. All is a mystery.
But I’m still going to avoid that red meat. Now that I think of it, maybe the bloody meat is a symbol, a sign of the times. There are so many troubling things going on in our country these days, and so many of them can be attributed to this bizarre notion of America being the bully that extracts red blood from other weaker countries. Kills and butchers them, bombs their flimsy boats with no authorization nor clear evidence of any wrong doing, then kidnaps their president. How is all this possible? And why do we let it continue? Today Rump tells us Columbia is next, then threatens Cuba, and announces that Greenland will soon be taken. It makes me almost glad that my time on earth is limited, but while here I’ll keep on resisting—both red meat and the people who lust after it.
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