As the years go by . . .

LOS ANGELES — How do you deal with the process of aging?

Aging ought to be considered good fortune. If you don’t age, you’re dead. But being old is also being marginalized — unless you’ve built up the status and cash to maintain your grip on influence. Power is a great aphrodisiac. Otherwise, it’s “OK Boomer!”

Soon, it will be “OK Xer!” And then “OK Millennial!”

Many Americans (probably most humans) fight the aging process tooth and nail. Being older is a profound negative in our culture. There’s a $100-billion cosmetics industry out there to help. Botox is an additional $16 billion. There were 1.5 million plastic surgeries in the U.S. in 2022. Very much of this is people wanting to shave a few years off their apparent age.

All the makeup and cosmetic surgery and testosterone boosting in the world will not allow you to live one second longer. In my POV, it is all a waste of time and money.

Of course, there will always be a desire for touchups and modifications. There is no culture in the world without makeup and body mods of some sort. Understand why you are doing what you are doing. Do it with a specific intent to satisfy yourself or meet a specific requirement and not to please an amorphous “other.”

I have come to accept the simple truth expressed in Desiderata:

I’m going to make an assumption here: Most people want to live well beyond the age at which their aesthetics are at their peak. How does one gracefully surrender the things of youth?

Gracefully means accepting the natural changes as they come. It doesn’t mean liking the changes. It means accepting the inevitable without rancor or denial. At the same time, it means maintaining the physical plant as best as practical. Do what you need to do to stay healthy as long as you can.

And maybe you are good for one more adventure…

I once met a group of PCT hikers while freehiking and shared some water with them. We talked about the trail, life, nudism, getting older and body positivity. The woman in the group said body positivity is not the way to go. It too often becomes an acceptance of unhealthy habits that could be changed. Your body is NOT perfect.

I don’t love my body unconditionally. Instead, I love long naked hikes and tossing my granddaughter into the air. I love the sun and wind on my skin and seeing and hearing the world around me. I love a clear mind. I love orgasms. I love my body indirectly because it enables those things. If I try to improve my body, it is to better enable the things I love, not because of someone else’s aesthetics. In that regard, a few pounds, scars, wrinkles and sags are meaningless.

I've moved to body neutrality. It is what it is, and I won't love it or hate it anymore. I'm going to keep it in as best repair as is practical. A body is a tool to carry your brain around and do the things you want/need to do. It doesn't exist to satisfy the desires of other people.

Body neutrality is simply the act of taking a neutral stance toward your body — both emotionally and physically. That means not supporting the hatred toward your body's “limitations” or investing time and energy to love it either. You can simply be at peace with your body. — Web MD

As you get older, you will look older. Accept it as a badge of honor and not a demerit. Though, if I had it to do again, I'd have a shitload of nude photos from when I was young and fit just to remind me of who I was.

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