I had my annual physical recently. I was pleased that all was well (although I’m still awaiting the results of various regular tests). But there was one shock when the nurse decided, for the first time in many years, to measure my height: I’ve shrunk two inches! And that was with my shoes on. By standing up as straight as I could, I managed to reduce that to one and a half inches--still with shoes on, so the figure remains at two inches. How and when did I shrink two inches?
I know losing height is natural as one ages. No: it’s natural as others age. It’s not natural for me to shrink. I have always been six feet and I am having a hard time accepting that I have lost two inches. I know I tend to stoop a bit. And, like a lot of people my age, I tend to walk with head down; that’s just a defense mechanism: falling is very hard on someone 69 years old, and Chicago sidewalks are often uneven and broken. Apparently, there’s basically nothing I can do about the shrinking.
Just like there is nothing I can do about aging. I’ve never been especially troubled by aging, and I don’t fight it generally. But two inches? That’s hard to take.
As for the “Incredible” part of the title, well, there’s nothing incredible about me. But the term certainly describes what I think of the fact that I have shrunk: that’s incredible.
