Sunday, January 17, 2010

Into the looking glass.....what do you see!

I, as do many other people my age, tend to not see our actual reflection in the looking glass. Possibly because we don't look that hard or maybe because we just don't care to see it.

For the most part everyone has a point or age in their life when they stopped aging. Of course not literally but in their mind. Everyone has an age that when asked how old they feel they can tell you.

When asked how old I feel I'll tell you that I feel like my mid twenties. Now upon closer examination you'd find that the only thing left that in any way resembles me in my mid twenties would be the color of my eyes and my appendectomy scar. Beyond those two items (or would that be three items counting that I have two eyes?) everything else has sunken, sagged, twisted or left the building.

Of course with all this said there are very few of us that feel or see ourselves in true clarity when it comes to how old we look. We are always younger and a wee bit better looking than what we really are. In addition most all of us are guilty of looking at others our age and thinking that we surely do not look that old!

With all that said allow me to share a brief story with you on this subject.............................

After a few minutes of sitting in the waiting room for my first appointment with my new doctor I lost interest in the People Magazine and I stood up and started looking at the art and plaques on the walls. The office housed four doctors and their diplomas and other notable achievements were framed and hung proudly on the walls. I took a small amount of additional interest in the diploma that belonged to my new doctor. The diploma, of course, had her full name and upon reading it I flashed back to my high school class of some 40 years earlier and I remembered this tall, slender, gorgious, black haired beauty that I had always had a crush on. Of course being the shy country boy that I was then I never left my feelings be known. Regardless, could this possibly be her? A bit of anticipation wafted thru my heart.

However upon seeing her I quickly abandoned my thinking and the anticipation swiftly took flight!

There was no doubt in my mind that this gray haired, fairly rounded woman with an aged lined face was way to old to have been in my class!

We did the doctor patient conversation and she examined my knee. No, no drugs needed for pain.....yes, the knee compression wrap is great, etc.

At the conclusion I decided to ask if she had ever attended Gettysburg High School. She said why yes, I did, I'm a Warrior!

I asked her what year she graduated? She said in 1967, why do you ask?

You were in my class, I answered!

At that point she looked at me closely and then that not so pretty, fat, wrinkled face, old, decrepit, worn out piece of crap asked me "What did you teach?"

7 comments:

Tom said...

oh honey, that appendectomy scar is a wee bit wider now than it was when you were twenty.
;>o
Debi

Unknown said...

Tom,

You truly have the gift: you can make an old joke even funnier than when I heard it the first time!

Unknown said...
This comment has been removed by the author.
Stephen Dodwell said...

LOL.... I hadn't heard it before Tom.......

Paula x

Theresa in Mèrida said...

That was hysterical! I was really glad that I don't drink at my keyboard!
regards.
Theresa

Nancy said...

I just now found your blog so I'm a bit behind...are you originally from Gettysburg? I'm from Chambersburg.

Unknown said...

This made me laugh out loud :) Thanks!