Some time ago while catching up with my older brother Randy and asking him how he was doing health-wise, he caught me off guard by prefacing his response with, “stop me at 2 minutes. Otherwise this topic will run on infinitum. I only allow myself a short diatribe on medical woes.” I laughed at the time, but began to pay more attention to just HOW MUCH of my conversations, especially with other seniors, wrap around our ever increasing health issues! Is it one-ups-manship” to compete on whose maladies take the cake? Or somehow the description of the ailments allows us a therapeutic processing of the pain? Or maybe an effort to comfort one another in the truth that “we are all in this together” … (AARP’s version of High School Musical’s best song!) Not sure, but it is a subtle aging reality! Could be born of less data to discuss since our lives have be simplified so much in retirement. In any case God, keep my heart and ears open to others’ need to make sense of the challenges of their changing bodies, know when to throw in my 2 cents, and gracefully accept my new limitations, (while poking at those boundaries as needed to not give up too easily!)