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When I was a kid, we lived in Hawaii every summer. My dad worked there. At one of the places we lived, there was a group of elders who met every morning in the park by the ocean, and did exercises in a big circle.
I could see them from our lanai, and to my young eyes, they were the most leathery group of old people I’d ever seen. Most of them were over 70, a lot were over 80 and they did this exercise circle that involved stretching and clapping and singing and shouting, and something that looked like the hokey pokey, but it probably wasn’t.
At the end of the hour, they all whooped and hollered and took off their workout clothes and ran into the ocean. I’d like to say that they were wearing bathing suits, but I’m not sure they were. Some of them wore their underwear, and lots of them wore nothing at all. So it was, in Hawaii in that decade.
I’d like to suggest that those “old” people were a whole lot younger than I was then, or than most of us are now.
Age isn’t a limitation; it’s the gift of the time we need, to learn how to live without self consciousness.
I could see them from our lanai, and to my young eyes, they were the most leathery group of old people I’d ever seen. Most of them were over 70, a lot were over 80 and they did this exercise circle that involved stretching and clapping and singing and shouting, and something that looked like the hokey pokey, but it probably wasn’t.
At the end of the hour, they all whooped and hollered and took off their workout clothes and ran into the ocean. I’d like to say that they were wearing bathing suits, but I’m not sure they were. Some of them wore their underwear, and lots of them wore nothing at all. So it was, in Hawaii in that decade.
I’d like to suggest that those “old” people were a whole lot younger than I was then, or than most of us are now.
Age isn’t a limitation; it’s the gift of the time we need, to learn how to live without self consciousness.
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