Are you singing yet? Perhaps you are not old enough to recall when the four Lads from Liverpool released “Sergeant Pepper’s.” Here is a reminder: please listen before going on. https://tinyurl.com/3hmve3y8

Ready? I can wait for you if you want to slow down and listen before we go on (more on that later). Really, I’m not in a hurry. About anything.

John, Paul, George and Ringo were delightfully delusional about the pace of deterioration associated with aging. They were young – Paul wrote this song when he was just 16 – so I am going to forgive their ignorance on this topic.

Today I read an article, a guest essay in the Washington Post, by geriatrician Dr. Rachael Bedad, regarding the characteristics of ‘frailty.’ Frailty refers medically to the steady slowing down of your body as you age, and the increasing vulnerability your body has to various stressors when you get older. Her essay was in part a response to the recent Presidential debate where President Biden appeared to be frail relative to his opponent, who was also about the same age but did not demonstrate the appearance of frailty on television. I quote from Dr. Bedad’s essay:

“Getting older often means accumulated wisdom, experience and even happiness, but it also means slowing down. Ours is a culture that greatly undervalues the potential contributions of older people who have so much to offer in terms of care, mentorship and experience and instead consistently portrays them as burdensome. To recognize that people are frail is not to think of them as no longer productive, dignified or wholly intact. It does not mean they are necessarily significantly cognitive impaired, nor does it mean they are imminently dying.

Elders who live successfully with frailty have transitioned into a phase of life in which they no longer expect and should not be expected to function in the exact same ways they’ve always functioned. It may mean changing one’s habits and routines to accommodate a slower-paced, less volatile life, accepting with grace both the privileges and the constraints of age.”

So, this has left me thinking hard about the question of how to best deal with becoming older than I was when I was younger. With any luck this will happen to all of us, and it will be helpful to have a way to accept whatever limitations come our way while enjoying life as actually experienced.

I have come to the conclusion that Frank Sinatra has already solved this problem by recording and making available to us his rendition of “That’s Life.” First, here is a YouTube video of one of his performances of this song. Please stop and listen, and then I will comment on why it’s relevant. There will be a quiz, so if you just skip over the video you will most likely flunk the quiz.

First, listen for the all-white Hammond B3 organ (you can see it in the back, near the end of the video) with a Leslie rotating speaker cabinet. My wife had one of these (although with a standard Leslie cabinet and a maple wood finish) which she enjoyed playing. Hearing it makes me happy.

Where was I? I think my mind was wandering just then, which I don’t recall happening when I was young. Oh, yes: “That’s Life.” This should be Joe Biden’s anthem, reminding him that he has been up and down, over and out, and he knows one thing; each time he finds himself, flat on his face, he picks himself up and gets back in the race. That’s life. He’s been ridin’ high in April, shot down in May. That’s life, and as funny as it seems, some people get their kicks stompin’ on a dream. If he didn’t think it worth a try, he’d jump on a big bird and then he’d fly.

Did you hear the music as you read through the lyrics above? Then you passed the quiz.

Whatever happens with Joe Biden and the office of the President, I think that I am well served to attend to Dr. Bedad’s words. Being older “… may mean changing one’s habits and routines to accommodate a slower-paced, less volatile life, accepting with grace both the privileges and the constraints of age.” That’s life.