Wednesday, August 17, 2011

There's A Limit

Just over an hour ago, when I was waiting for my dinner to heat up, I began wondering about that woman, just a few months younger than myself, who had gotten all this publicity last week when she started swimming from Cuba to Florida without a shark cage.  Last I had heard she had just started.  Then my week got too busy and I never heard if she succeeded or not.

So, I just checked with ol' google.  I typed in:
"62 year old woman swims cuba florida"
Then I scrolled down the list of links and finally read:
"Diana Nyad Unable To Finish Cuba to Florida Swim: 'It's Over'"
Diana Nyad, the 61-year old woman who attempted to swim from Cuba to Florida without the aid of a shark cage, was forced to abandon the quest halfway between her starting and end points...

From the article it seems like she was at peace with her failure.  Just getting that far is quite an accomplishment.  Dying would defeat the purpose of it, the goal. 

Nyad and I are of the same generation.  As a generation, we've seen our parents as being much more youthful than our grandparents ever were.  We were warned "not to trust anyone over thirty," so it seems important to try to function as if we're 29 forever.  That's a decade younger than Jack Benny's eternal age. 

Sometimes I think my kids are older than I am.

We have to be thankful for every day we're alive and functioning.  But we don't have to try to compete or keep up with the person we once were.  Each day is a new day, and we must rework the challenges to fit.

4 comments:

Hadassa said...

Shalom!
There's a baby picture of my dad holding me with a poster clearly visible in the background. The year was 1971 and the poster read: "Never trust anyone under 30". (I'm the youngest. Both my parents were over 30 by the time I was born.) Both that statement and its reverse are rather silly.

Batya said...

30 was considered a benchmark, no longer a teen.

Leora said...

Love this story. Glad she did not kill herself trying. That's a good message for the younger generation.

Batya said...

Yes, leora, and even a better lesson for those of us who pretend we're still 30 something or younger.