Sophia the Greek goddess of wisdom came to mind as I read a piece in the NY Times (Older Really Can Mean Wiser by Benedict Carey, March 16, 2015) concerning a recent series of studies conducted by Harvard and M.I.T. post doctoral fellows about the benefits associated with the middle aged mind.
It is refreshing to read an article about anything age related that comes down on the side of the "aged." Those in their twenties and thirties have an advantage when it comes to memory retention and speed when recalling information but what they possess in ease of rapid recall doesn't make them wise.
Wisdom is the domain of those in middle age. We fifty somethings have a vast amount of knowledge, and a greater ability to read facial expressions than our younger counterparts, which enables us to be...wise. We understand a situation better than Millennials and Gen-Xers due to these characteristics.
A study from Germany suggests that the reason we are slower to recall facts than the whipper snappers is that we have far more information to sort through before we can generate a response to a stimulus. Another factor in the speed of response may be slower firing neurons, but researchers are not certain about this.
People in their thirties are facile with numbers and those in their twenties are quickest on the draw with facial recognition but if you want to identify the crux of a complex issue, especially one that involves peoples' personalities, leave it to my g..g..generation: we are the wise ones. Because of the number of experiences we have accumulated, the volume of facts and our emotional intelligence we are best suited to see the truth (loaded, I know) and assess the emotional tenor of the people in a given situation to find the optimal outcome. What we are talking about here is judgement.
I would like to believe that I have refined my sense of judgement over the years and although I do not believe in God I do think it is a miracle that I am still alive. I should have become a statistic in the Death by Misadventure column of the actuarial tables sometime between my eleventh and thirty fifth years. As a late teen there were a few occasions when I had no recollection of driving home from a party - sad but true and unfortunately not unique. What sends a chill down my spine is the harm I could have caused others. This demonstrates the need for wiser minds and cooler heads in social situations, which unfortunately are in short supply when (especially in teenagers due to the incomplete development of their pre-frontal cortices) group-think takes over. In many situations, however, two minds in various stages of development are better than one.
Perhaps this is not the time to espouse my belief that no one
under twenty one should be allowed to drive an automobile but since I
am of a certain age I will demonstrate my better judgement and keep this
opinion to myself.
One of the benefits of having a partner while rock climbing is a doubling of brain power. When I was learning to climb I often paired with people in their forties and fifties because they had great advice about what not to do. And my primary concern when climbing continues to be my partner's ability to make wise choices. I credit my tragedy free climbing career to the company I keep (knock on wood). But, as mentioned above horrors occur when climbers ignore signs of imminent disaster. It is usually a string of mistakes that leads to an accident - it is rarely one bad decision. It is contingent upon partners to question every action, both theirs and their buddy's, to prevent the cycle of errors from moving forward. Part of this issue is social. People don't like to confront each other and when you talk to climbers after an accident what they often relate is "such and such was wrong and I should have said something, but..."
I speak from personal experience when I say that one of the greatest parts about getting older is that I feel more comfortable speaking my mind. This doesn't mean I am more vocal about everything (and more of a pain in the ass) but if something is wrong wisdom makes it easier for me to recognize it as such and to address it than when I was younger. I am more careful about how I present the information because you can be correct in your determination but if you are indelicate in your presentation people will not listen to you or they will do the opposite of what you suggest because they don't like you.
I call attention to this positive aspect of aging because I have been discouraged by the speed with which I recall facts and when I was attending school recently I was frustrated by how difficult I found Chemistry and math to be. It is good to know that I am not entering the early stages of dementia (yet). As I see it my brain has aged like a fine wine that is not as bright and zesty as it once was but has become a complex and creamy garnet intoxicant with a buttery and accessible finish. But alas - all good things must come to an end.
Unfortunately as we age (seventies and eighties) we lose this edge because for whatever reason we become less able to read people and our memory decreases. Hopefully, a healthy lifestyle will mitigate this change, either that, or big pharma will design a pill for it in the next twenty years.
Wednesday, March 25, 2015
Thursday, March 19, 2015
Spring?
Spring is almost upon us: I saw and heard my first red wing black bird this afternoon and I can now see patches of ground where the snow has melted. I feel a release after a relentless winter. We broke records for how far the mercury dropped, how long it stayed below zero and the number of inches of snow we accumulated. Winter sports are fun but no matter what activity I engage in I become cold easily after years of climbing, snow shoeing and fixing houses in freezing temperatures and thawing out my fingers and toes can take hours.
It used to perplex me that people migrated to Florida temporarily or permanently at this time of year. Now I get it. This is the last winter I will spend in the northeast without a respite from the cold. February is the breaking point and next year we will spend one of those four long weeks baking in the sun far south of the Hudson Valley. Last month I felt as if I were the protagonist in a nineteenth century Russian novel set in a Siberian outpost with Twenty first century conveniences: The pipes froze both at home and in our rental unit (destroying a third of the kitchen), the cars have been parked at the end of the driveway since the end of December (about 50 yards from the front door); between home and the rental house I have shoveled thousands of pounds of snow, due to the ceaseless precipitation the only colors I know are black and white (with the occasional yellow), I have worn the same clothes for weeks on end (changing socks and underwear as needed), I have eaten more chicken and chicken soup for breakfast lunch and dinner for days on end than at any other time in my life, I had long philosophical conversations with the dog and cat about whether or not truth is subjectivity (of course it is. The dog and I concur but the cat always disagrees), I have burned at least five cords of wood which is good because the propane guys couldn't make it up the driveway due to the three foot drifts of snow and ice that I refused to pay to have removed by plow (I kept thinking they would melt), the fire box of the wood stove crumbled in my hands last week when I had the first opportunity all winter to clean it and it will cost me $750 to fix (parts under warranty no less!), and after the frame of the truck was replaced in January (another recall) the four wheel drive failed and cost $1,200 to fix. Now I am ready for a vacation.
But I am not complaining. We survived: neither of us fell on the icy luge run that connected the shoveled portion of the driveway, where we parked our cars, to the front door: we didn't get the flu, we read some good books (Benjamin Franklin, An American Life by Walter Isaacson was excellent) and we rediscovered yoga.
As winter winds down some people have asked me about the SAD light results. As I discussed in a blog sometime in February, I purchased a 10,000 LUX UV lamp manufactured by SunTouch Plus to combat the winter blues and I am happy to report that it has become an old friend. I sat in front of it with a hot cup of tea at 6AM every morning staring into the darkness beyond fairly certain that the sun would rise and that I soon would don four more layers of clothing to meet the day. The lamp was helpful as evidenced by my continuous lack of a criminal record. My physical self continues to exist and as the temperatures creep into the forties, I anticipate a return of my conscious self.
Apparently we are getting more snow tomorrow - as much as six inches, but that doesn't bother me because this afternoon I finally put the truck in to four wheel low and rammed my way up to the front door, so nothing can bring my spirits down - unless I can't exit the driveway tomorrow morning.
It used to perplex me that people migrated to Florida temporarily or permanently at this time of year. Now I get it. This is the last winter I will spend in the northeast without a respite from the cold. February is the breaking point and next year we will spend one of those four long weeks baking in the sun far south of the Hudson Valley. Last month I felt as if I were the protagonist in a nineteenth century Russian novel set in a Siberian outpost with Twenty first century conveniences: The pipes froze both at home and in our rental unit (destroying a third of the kitchen), the cars have been parked at the end of the driveway since the end of December (about 50 yards from the front door); between home and the rental house I have shoveled thousands of pounds of snow, due to the ceaseless precipitation the only colors I know are black and white (with the occasional yellow), I have worn the same clothes for weeks on end (changing socks and underwear as needed), I have eaten more chicken and chicken soup for breakfast lunch and dinner for days on end than at any other time in my life, I had long philosophical conversations with the dog and cat about whether or not truth is subjectivity (of course it is. The dog and I concur but the cat always disagrees), I have burned at least five cords of wood which is good because the propane guys couldn't make it up the driveway due to the three foot drifts of snow and ice that I refused to pay to have removed by plow (I kept thinking they would melt), the fire box of the wood stove crumbled in my hands last week when I had the first opportunity all winter to clean it and it will cost me $750 to fix (parts under warranty no less!), and after the frame of the truck was replaced in January (another recall) the four wheel drive failed and cost $1,200 to fix. Now I am ready for a vacation.
But I am not complaining. We survived: neither of us fell on the icy luge run that connected the shoveled portion of the driveway, where we parked our cars, to the front door: we didn't get the flu, we read some good books (Benjamin Franklin, An American Life by Walter Isaacson was excellent) and we rediscovered yoga.
As winter winds down some people have asked me about the SAD light results. As I discussed in a blog sometime in February, I purchased a 10,000 LUX UV lamp manufactured by SunTouch Plus to combat the winter blues and I am happy to report that it has become an old friend. I sat in front of it with a hot cup of tea at 6AM every morning staring into the darkness beyond fairly certain that the sun would rise and that I soon would don four more layers of clothing to meet the day. The lamp was helpful as evidenced by my continuous lack of a criminal record. My physical self continues to exist and as the temperatures creep into the forties, I anticipate a return of my conscious self.
Apparently we are getting more snow tomorrow - as much as six inches, but that doesn't bother me because this afternoon I finally put the truck in to four wheel low and rammed my way up to the front door, so nothing can bring my spirits down - unless I can't exit the driveway tomorrow morning.
Monday, March 2, 2015
Banging Bumpers in Box Builds Big Butts: WSJ or New York Post?
The February 17th article titled "Fans of Crossfit Training Brag About Extra Bulk" in The Wall Street Journal focused on the "re-proportioned" backsides of Crossfit women. This article didn't surprise me but it did make my head spin. Red meat (WSJ's op ed section) and sex sell. The issue of strong and hypertrophic gluteus muscles has played out in the Crossfit (CF) community, or so I thought, so it is curious to see an article about it now. Of course CF is so popular at present that we will probably see more of these human interest/health/soft porn articles.
As I have mentioned in this blog before, your muscles will increase in size the heavier you lift and the more you eat. One trainer I know insists that a woman's buttocks will not increase in size unless they eat and lift enough to increase muscle mass. This may be true but in my experience all the endo and meso women I know have gained some size in this particular area following a CF program. Ectos tend to become more toned than big in in this region but why are we wasting our time on this?
You go to a gym to change your body. You want to be bigger, smaller, lighter, heavier, faster, healthier and...to look good! You define "good." A trainer is there to help you achieve what you desire without hurting yourself.
If you like a larger butt lift heavy and eat a lot. If you want more tone but not size perform more repetitions at a lighter weight and eat less. If your goal is to be as strong as you can be, do as the woman in the article did and throw out the scale, tailor your pants and feel beautiful.
We are all so hung-up on how we look and we will never escape society's standards of what is considered desirable. Hopefully you have the self confidence, education and guidance to set realistic expectations for yourself so that you do not become a victim of society's norms and your unrealistic goals. Easy for me to say - I am a man (who is supposed to be big, strong, have a full head of hair, piercing eyes, a good sense of humor and a nice package).
What I find most attractive in a person is a rock solid sense of self - an inner strength and understanding. This attitude is often accompanied by a healthy body because one emerges from the other. The ideal body comes in all shapes, sizes and textures.
One of my friends at the gym had an interesting thought about the thrust of the WSJ piece. She asked me "What if a man's penis was going to shrink if he engaged in a Crossfit regimen?" Well, steroid eating body builders have no problem making that sacrifice but for the remainder of the male gym population the answer remains a mystery. I am certain there are guys who would sacrifice size for size, but there isn't a single answer to that question. In our culture there are no limits to the aesthetic modifications both men and women impose on themselves to "look good" to others and "others" is the issue. When do you cross over from me to we? Sometimes it is an inextricable paradox but you have to decide what is most important to you.
Which brings us back to health. If you are working at the gym to fit into someone else's ideal of beauty - go for it. If you are trying to get stronger - great! And if you want to be fit and pain free - excellent!
But spare me the details concerning the size of your ass - that information is personal and by focusing on it you only call more attention to women's bodies as objects, where they stand firm beside the image of uber men, and detract from the benefits of being strong and healthy.
As I have mentioned in this blog before, your muscles will increase in size the heavier you lift and the more you eat. One trainer I know insists that a woman's buttocks will not increase in size unless they eat and lift enough to increase muscle mass. This may be true but in my experience all the endo and meso women I know have gained some size in this particular area following a CF program. Ectos tend to become more toned than big in in this region but why are we wasting our time on this?
You go to a gym to change your body. You want to be bigger, smaller, lighter, heavier, faster, healthier and...to look good! You define "good." A trainer is there to help you achieve what you desire without hurting yourself.
If you like a larger butt lift heavy and eat a lot. If you want more tone but not size perform more repetitions at a lighter weight and eat less. If your goal is to be as strong as you can be, do as the woman in the article did and throw out the scale, tailor your pants and feel beautiful.
We are all so hung-up on how we look and we will never escape society's standards of what is considered desirable. Hopefully you have the self confidence, education and guidance to set realistic expectations for yourself so that you do not become a victim of society's norms and your unrealistic goals. Easy for me to say - I am a man (who is supposed to be big, strong, have a full head of hair, piercing eyes, a good sense of humor and a nice package).
What I find most attractive in a person is a rock solid sense of self - an inner strength and understanding. This attitude is often accompanied by a healthy body because one emerges from the other. The ideal body comes in all shapes, sizes and textures.
One of my friends at the gym had an interesting thought about the thrust of the WSJ piece. She asked me "What if a man's penis was going to shrink if he engaged in a Crossfit regimen?" Well, steroid eating body builders have no problem making that sacrifice but for the remainder of the male gym population the answer remains a mystery. I am certain there are guys who would sacrifice size for size, but there isn't a single answer to that question. In our culture there are no limits to the aesthetic modifications both men and women impose on themselves to "look good" to others and "others" is the issue. When do you cross over from me to we? Sometimes it is an inextricable paradox but you have to decide what is most important to you.
Which brings us back to health. If you are working at the gym to fit into someone else's ideal of beauty - go for it. If you are trying to get stronger - great! And if you want to be fit and pain free - excellent!
But spare me the details concerning the size of your ass - that information is personal and by focusing on it you only call more attention to women's bodies as objects, where they stand firm beside the image of uber men, and detract from the benefits of being strong and healthy.
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