Keeping One's Balance

My doctor tells me that - at my age - I need to concentrate on maintaining my balance - a polite way of encouraging me not to fall down a lot.

He says that falling often is the first in a short sequence of events which can lead to one's dropping off one's limb on the tree of life. Most of us want to defer that result as long as possible.

Long ago I learned to fall frequently - first on the skating rink and subsequently on the hockey rink. Playing hockey is an education in falling down and getting hit and falling down. After a while, you don't think much about it.

Time passes, and one morning you wake up and find that you are middle-aged, so you set about trying to defer the inevitable impact of ageing...a process very much like trying to defy gravity. More years go by, and then the day arrives when you look into the mirror and wonder, "Who the hell is the old guy looking back at me?"

About a decade ago when I was on the cusp of advanced middle age, I slipped and fell on a patch of ice near our offices and landed smack on the back of my head. I think I was unconscious for a few seconds and subsquently discovered I couldn't get back on my feet. So I crawled into the building and down the hall to the only business open, a tea room.

As I crawled in, the ladies were very amused at this unique attempt at humor, but when I told them what had happened, they brought a chair forthwith and helped me into it. They were most solicitous, and when I felt better, I returned to the office and called my doctor who gave me a brief interview and told me to go home and make no important decisions for the next three days. I asked him about this recommendation; he told me that I would be "goofy" until about the fourth day. Naturally, I thought he was kidding, but it turned out that he was oh so very right. My hockey "intuition' was long gone; there was no doubt about that.

After that fall, I changed my views about walking in the winter in Minnesota and acquired a variety of shoes, boots, and attachments to same to help me navigate the snowy and icy periods typical during our long winter. After the hip was replaced, I was especially cautious, and the winter after the replacement, I got too confident and slipped on the ice seven times during the winter. This led to a further review of walking accessories, and I acquired two molybdenum tipped walking poles and rubbers with the same kind of tips on the soles.

And then I discovered the Nintend Wii game system and their "Fit" program, now called "Fit Plus." One part of the exercises have to do with balance, and I began to do those exercises with a passion. My balance improved, as did my confidence, and my episodes of entertaining strangers in the out of doors diminished.

This winter, we began with heaps of snow followed by rain, yes, rain. So walking and driving have become perpetual exercises in paying attention ('though I still see people on their cell phones - go figure!).

For the time being, it's back to the treadmill and the hiking sticks for Islay the beloved scotty and me, along with even more time on the Wii in my attempts to defer that which needs to be deferred.

Good luck to us all this winter!

I still approach the winter environment with great caution and still do my Wii exercises, as well as occasional stretches on the treadmill when outdoors is just too awful for words other than those of the four letter variety.

Walking in winter is like many of other challenges which face us throughout our lives - questions of balance.