A Different Point of View

I’m having a difficult time accepting the perks of aging.

While I don’t hesitate to ask for senior discounts when available, I’m less apt to accept help in physical matters.

At the lumber yard last week, a concerned clerk offered to carry four small boxes of nails and a roll of tape to the cash register for me.

“Thanks,” I told him, “I’ve got it.”

He then asked what I was working on and when I told him it was a roof he said: “Hey, you be careful.”

I don’t know what prompted his concern. I was dressed like all the other guys in the place, even wearing a hooded sweatshirt with a construction company logo on it. I might have been a bit older than everyone else, but who could tell? Apparently, the clerk could. My sweatshirt, dirty ball cap, shorts and leather boots didn’t fool him.

I was an old man.

I needed help.

Where was this guy when I was hoisting the 2x8 rafters, I wondered?

But I thanked him again for his assistance and left the store. Climbing into my truck I glanced at the rearview mirror and saw an old man looking back at me.

Somewhat foolishly, I’ve always taken pride in doing hard, physical labor. I’m no stranger to the shovel or the drawknife. I’ve spent days dragging elk out of the mountains, lifted things I shouldn’t have, and remain convinced I still can.

Instead of a capable, can-do kind of guy, however, I’m now apparently looked at as someone who may need some help.

I need to embrace that even if it’s not in my genes.

My mother didn’t go quietly into old age. She remained active until the end, but refused to ride a three-wheeled bicycle or play shuffleboard because she said that’s what “old people did.”

For me, it’s accepting help. I’ve always been on the other end of that, and watching someone else carry my load while I carry nothing isn’t in me.

At least not yet.

Like a line from a country song, I’m not as good as I once was, but I’m as good once as I ever was.

It’s what I tell myself, anyway.

That wrinkled old gray-haired dude in the rearview mirror might disagree.

Parker Heinlein is at [email protected]