Mount Pleasant Magazine May/June 2018

202 www.RetiringToSC.com | www.ILoveMountPleasant.com | www.ReadMP.com senior living 1 - The Cumulative We In 1982’s “Walking on Water,” novelist/essayist Madeleine L’Engle noted, “The great thing about getting older is that you don’t lose all the other ages you’ve been.” Is that true? Is 13-year-old Mike inside the 50-something Mike now tapping away on my laptop? Does 34-year-old, nervous-first-time-father Mike reside in there as well? And what about Mikey, the precocious but petrified kindergartner? Certainly, L’Engle’s paradigm has its attractions – the idea that Mike of 1970 was only a tiny snowball at the top of the mountain, while Mike 2018 is a boulder-shaped avalanche bounding across the foothills and Mike 2060 will be an ice-sculpture Pluto, steamrolling farmhouses into the valley floor beneath the weight of Mikes 1964-2059. This appeals to my sense of continuity, which in turn appeals to my deep-seated hunch that everything bears weight and has consequence. It also means that each one of those Michaels still lives within me, and I can commune with them and even see through their eyes when I want. This ability of a grown adult to see life as a 14-year-old was important to L’Engle because she was a novelist, often writing young adult stories from the point of view of a teenager. But clearly the ability to see life through the eyes of other people has utility for non-authors as well. The best elders I know use this trans-chronological ability to connect empathetically with people scores of years younger than they. 2 - Bucket Lists Reconsidered When I say best elders, I also mean happiest. The happiest elders are not, in my experience, those still racing around the Earth trying to check off the last items on their bucket lists. If the afterlife is what the believers say, then whatever high we get from hiking across Spain or prancing up a pyramid will seem ridiculously trivial a second after we die. And if there’s nothing after death, then we’ve By Michael Sigalas Four Thoughts on Aging MOUNT PLEASANT 767 Johnnie Dodds Blvd., Mount Pleasant, SC 29464 843.881.3111 WEST ASHLEY 2270 Ashley Crossing Dr., Ste 175, Charleston SC 29414 843.410.5766 lowcountryoralsurgery.com | Email: info@lowcountryoralsurgery.com Dental Implants | Corrective Jaw Surgery Oral Pathology | Wisdom Teeth Facial Trauma | Teeth Extractions Now with 2 locations serving the tri-county area. MATT DILLARD, DMD, MS DONALD PHILLIPS, DMD ORAL & MAXILLOFACIAL SURGERY OF THE LOWCOUNTRY