Our bodies carry us through this world like self-contained city states. Each consumes resources, manufactures energy, grows and rebuilds. If we’re lucky, most of the maintenance routine goes on with little involvement from us. Cells are replaced, attackers are repelled and borders are held firm. In spite of a bit of expansion that accumulates over the years around the equator, we govern our territory fairly automatically.
Then, the years pile up and our infrastructure can use a bit of investment. Those we love transition imperceptibly at first, but time waits for no one. For some, graying hair may signal the changing season. For others, the furnace adds another shift as menopause turns up the thermostat. How do we adapt? What do we expect? The web is rife with anecdote, conflicting notions, abundant data and confusing allegory. Some posts raise more questions than answers. Still, managing the mystery can make it all a bit less difficult.
Then, is it possible that men suffer much the same in different ways? Increasing weakness and loss of stamina continue to consume them even as the people in their lives seem to require more. One can surf the untamed internet seeking insight on this notion of manopause but little is garnered.
Without regard to our gender, the point, of course, is not to lament the inevitability of what is, but to come to understand and, in doing so, hope to advance in our lives looking ever forward rather than as an aging Narcissus, obsessed with a long-past image of our former selves. As quickly as we adjust to the present, it becomes the past. With autumn continuing its slow retreat, we collectively assume an attitude of readiness. Frigid, short and gray days will become the standard. Even so, warm, sunny ones will replace them soon enough.
