230703 End of Life

Everyone of us eventually reaches the end of our path in life.

There are three ways life ends, one is getting killed in an accident. Two is killing yourself. Three is the most frequent way, old age.

I would prefer number 3. Number two is not an option for me. In number 3, people begin to lose their capacity to either maintain their body functioning or lose their mental functions. Neither of those things sounds like fun to me.

I have experienced what I call physical step-downs since I was 55 years old when the first occurred. I didn’t have the physical strength I once had. I believe that to be normal for most of us. The second came in at 65 years old. I no longer had the endurance, the stamina that I had before. When I was 24 I could and regularly did 100 pushups. When I was 55 I could do 20 pushups. Now at 78, It’s all I can do to muster up 10 pushups and that has taken me months to get to.

Now the question is, will I lose my bodily abilities or my mental functioning? Perhaps it will be both. I’m wondering which will be the worst outcome? I certainly could have symptoms of both at this point, that is fairly normal. Neither one sounds good to me. If I had to pick one over the other, I can’t decide at this moment. Any suggestions?