As words go, it’s not one of my favourites.
Deterioration. “The process of becoming progressively worse.” 1
Eww. Sounds like mouldy bread.
The reality of life is, deterioration happens to all of us adults. I used to be able to walk farther and run up a set of stairs. At one point in my life, I worked three jobs. My knees didn’t hurt and I thrived on less sleep. I would come home from work and clean the house, bake and write until midnight. None of those things happens anymore.
Have I deteriorated? Or changed?
Probably some of both. What’s changed is not only my body but what is important to me. I don’t need or desire to work three jobs anymore. It would be great to have knees that don’t hurt, but I’ve learned to live with it. It takes longer to clean the house, but it gets cleaned. I only bake occasionally, but that’s enough. For the most part, I write on the weekends, when I am fresh. I’ve accommodated myself to the changes in my body, which corresponds to the changes in how I choose to spend my time.
I ask again: have I deteriorated or changed? If deterioration is becoming progressively worse, what is “worse?” I remember the days of three jobs, and I remember happy family times when my children were young. I also remember the exhaustion, constant money worries and overwhelming fear of the future. The truth is, each stage of life, with its plusses and minuses, has its good times and bad, and today is better in some ways and worse in others.
Why the philosophical diatribe? Because people don’t look at me with crestfallen faces and say, “She’s deteriorated.” But we use the D-word with our elders all the time.
What would happen if we threw out the D-word, and accepted people for who they are today? All the changes that affect us–physical, emotional, social, spiritual (and any other “al” that you can think of) become a part of who we are–today. I may have a life-long interest in tennis, and now I watch matches on television. Or perhaps tennis no longer excites me, but visits from my grandchildren make my eyes glow. I am always in the process of becoming. Growing. Adapting. And even at my most impaired, I am me. Look in my eyes, and find me.
I’m not in the process of becoming progressively worse. I am becoming who I am today.
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A New Look at Deterioration
1.https://en.oxforddictionaries.com/definition/deterioration