The most common reaction to seeing us young folk on the cruise was to compliment us on our performance the previous night. Apparently all young people look the same, and the dance corps was also a young group of people aboard the ship. The second most common reaction was to ask us what in the world we were doing on the ship. After all, we were all young, and everyone besides the ship employees was old.
Whenever I’m trying to convince someone to come on a cruise with me, which is something I seem to do pretty regularly, the conversation gets to the point where the fact that it’s essentially a floating nursing home must be addressed. Not everyone believes me when I tell them that I really enjoy hanging out with the old people.
Part of it is that many of them have lots of interesting stories, and you get to see a side of the older generations that you may not all be privvy to. I’ve got some choice quotes from senior citizens that wouldn’t be fit for print here. Another aspect of it, though, is that it affords a view of what happens when we age.
The variance in health amongst people in their twenties or thirties is pretty small. Sure, there are some outliers who ended up on the losing end of the cancer lottery, but mostly people are mentally alert and reasonably physically capable.
The same cannot be said for senior citizens.
There seems to be a real split. As best I can tell, there’s one group that’s taken care of themselves and stayed mentally sharp, and there’s another group that’s maybe not so active and healthy and not so mentally sharp. Physical and mental shape seem to be correlated.
And, boy, what a difference it makes. The eighty-year-olds in good shape will have you cracking up with their wit. One lady aimed her cane at us and used it to machine-gun us down. Plenty of them are more outgoing than I am, making the effort to approach our group and start a conversation. One woman, Diane, got up on stage with me to sing the chorus of Ice Ice Baby, and to dance.
And then there’s the other side. On the rare occasions they move, they move at a glacial pace. You look at their eyes, and see no spark. Even though they’re the same age as the other group, they seem decades older.
I’m not there to judge the latter group. I have no idea what it’s like to get old, and I’m sure that external and internal forces both play a part in the aging process. But there is a big difference, and I definitely want to be in the former group.
When you first go on a cruise, it’s hard not to go nuts on the unlimited food and dessert. By by the end, I was only eating one dessert a day, and only on days I had worked out. I skipped the starches in the entrees, and mostly just ate meat, beans, and vegetables. And four lobsters on lobster night.
Diet is undoubtedly a big factor in what causes people to age, and seeing the evidence shuffling around me was enough to motivate me to skip the cake. Mental engagement seems to be the next big factor, but that seems to be something to focus on further down the line.
It’s easy to think about the short-term consequences of our actions, and those can be powerful motivators. Not always powerful enough, though, as evidenced with the amount of soda and junk food consumed. Think also about what sort of old person you want to be, and make sure that you’re heading in that direction. I’ve seen both kinds, and one seems to really still be getting a lot out of life.
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Photo is an older couple looking out at a Volcano in Horta, which was our first stop on the last cruise.
I’m currently in Berlin. If you’re here… come watch me sing Karaoke at Mauerpark on Sunday.
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