In writing this essay, I am speaking for a person born in 1918, one born in 1920, and myself, born in 1922. So you see, there are no spring chickens among the three of us. Not long ago, a question arose from the one born in 1920 of whether he would prefer to keep his mind about him as he entered his 90th year. This gentleman, born in 1920, was quite firm in the belief that he wished to preserve his mind while he would do his best to take care of his body.
I have given this matter a good bit of thought and I have reached the same conclusion. It is my belief that it is better to preserve one’s mind as opposed to preserving the body. I am of the opinion that the body in people of our age is going to go any second. As a matter of fact, all of us have noticed deterioration in the performance of our bodies. In my own case, I measure how I perform on the stationary bicycle from one exercise to the next. When there is deterioration, I am aware of a decline in my performance while exercising.
On the other hand, there is an argument to be made that when the mind goes, one will be unaware of deterioration in the mind or the body. I suspect that has a lot of logic associated with it. Given a choice, I believe that it is better to preserve the mind rather than the body. The body can be helped by such things as walkers and wheelchairs. The mind has no such fallback.
I presume that a disinterested observer would say that at our advanced age, “What in the hell is there to care about?” But in point of fact, the matter has a good bit to concern all of us. If you wish to evaluate the health of your mind and body as you turn into your upper 80s and lower 90s, I would recommend that it is significantly better to preserve the mind as opposed to the body. The gods did not give us a choice in this matter so we are left on our own. In my case, the body is wobbly but I am still able to write essays such as this one even as I enter into my lower 90s. I do not believe that the world will be changed by my essays but as youngsters come along, they may be interested in what happens to both the mind and the body.
So mark me down as one who wishes to preserve the mind as opposed to the body. I would be thoroughly delighted to have both my mind and my body working as they did a few years ago. But the gods who control such matters apparently decided otherwise. And the three of us are in a similar situation. In my case, to use one example, I still get around the house. When a wheelchair is offered to me at the Summit Medical Group which we patronize, I am quick to take it. There is no excessive pride here.
There was an occasion when I parked my wheelchair outside of the examining room. Apparently someone was looking for a wheelchair and took mine. Stealing a wheelchair is at least a second- or third-degree felony. I expect that George Zimmerman would be happy to have my problem on stealing wheelchairs.
In the final analysis, if there is a choice between preserving the mind or the body, I suppose that I have already made up my mind that preserving the intellect is better than preserving the body and this goes for all three of us old timers. I wish that, as I said before, both of them could be maintained at a superior pace and not have it determined otherwise. So it is that all of us must wait for the end. I would prefer to return both my mind and body to their late 40s or early 50s, but that is not in the cards. And so this essay being written on Sunday is an appeal to the gods to help me in my work. I sincerely suspect that the gods will do no such thing. And so we are left to do the very best we can.
E. E. CARR
June 30, 2013
Essay 756
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Kevin’s commentary: I can think of seven hundred and fifty six pieces of evidence that suggest that Pop’s mind is still sharp.
I would have to agree with him on this front though; that it would be certainly better to lose the body if one of the two has to go first. I wonder though, why chose early 50s for the body-return state, as opposed to earlier such as his 30s or so. I wonder how far back he would have to roll in order to get his full head of hair back. Hopefully he can enlighten me.
EDITOR’S NOTE: META / SITEADMIN
This essay is being published on July 29th. I’m deciding that by the end of August, I will be caught up such that publish date and the day’s date are once again in synch. I’ve been delinquent the last few weeks due to server issues, general business, and most recently friends in town to celebrate my 23rd birthday. It was a heck of a weekend but it is time to buckle back down. We should be seeing multiple essays per day for the coming four weeks. Cheers!