www.roanoke.com

(via Metafilter) I didn't intend or really have the time to read this lengthy, spectacular piece on aging written by a 68-year-old magazine writer. It's a captivating look at the way life changes as you get old.

Here's a brief excerpt, but I recommend the entire piece. Just wait to start it until you actually have the time:

You get old, people don’t notice you. You sit at a bar, sipping your Jim Beam Black, neat now, no water, no ice, when a pretty woman in her 40s sits next to you. You smile at her, say hi. She looks at you and through you around the bar.

You get old, young guys don’t get pissed off anymore that you’re lifting heavier weight than they are on the preacher-curl bench. Now they say, “You sure that weight isn’t too heavy for you, sir?” They used to call you Mack. When you were younger you would have said, “Mind your own goddamned business!” Now you say, “Thanks, guy, I think I can handle it.”

You get old, you lose your anger. It takes too much energy to be angry when you’re old. You have more important things to do with your waning energy, so you hoard it like a dwindling resource.