Four benefits of getting older

A bunch of drop-dead gorgeous actresses (think Halle Berry) are now in their forties, so all of a sudden, forty is fabulous, forty is hot, forty is sexy.  When Halle Berry is eighty, eighty will be sexy.  Good for her.  But how about the rest of us?  What perks do the advancing years bestow on us?  I mean, besides the promise of reduced admission to the movie theatre.

I’ve been thinking a lot about this lately.  Although I intend to stay vibrant and vital, energetic, resilient and generally kick-ass for as long as possible, I don’t deny that the seasons do change and the calendar pages flip over and my children are getting older.  Which means I must be too.  I mean chronologically, of course.  Biologically I am fighting the good fight and, so far, holding my own.

Still, I feel I need to come up with at least a few solid benefits to this aging business. “Aging has nothing to recommend it,” a mid-70ish Woody Allen told an interviewer a few years ago.   I refuse to believe that.  But I am also skeptical of those who say, “I have never felt so comfortable with myself as I do now that I am (fill in the age).”  At least half wishful thinking, right? And that claptrap about older meaning wiser?  Please.

So what do I see as the benefits of getting older?

1.  I (occasionally) know what I’m talking about.  That’s because I’ve lived through some stuff, and on those occasions when I did so with eyes (and heart) open, I may actually have learned something.  I’m not talking wise here.  Just less stupid.

2.  I am deeply knowledgeable about and completely up to speed on the New Trend in Health and Fitness.  That’s because the new trend for 2013 is exercising the way we all used to in gym class back in the day:  jumping jacks and squats, push-ups, rope climbs, bear crawls – all that P.E. misery is now de rigueur.

3.  I am old enough to understand the idiocy of “no pain, no gain.”

4.  I can look forward to being even happier than I am!  That’s because, according to research I’ve been reading, the “mature” neurons in older brains react less intensely to negative experiences while still responding strongly to positive stimuli.