What I’m Still Good At

      There are so many things I’m no longer good at, things I can’t do anymore or can’t do as well as I used to. Yeah, it happens when you get older.

      The reminders are everywhere.

      The running app on my phone, which has tracked my runs for the last ten years, now shows that each year my average pace is nearly a minute slower. Each year my total mileage has decreased.  

      I can’t touch my toes anymore and my ophthalmologist, at my annual appointment, each year tells me I need new lenses because 20/20 is now 20/60.

      I used to be able to sleep until 10 or 11, now I’m lucky if I can make it to 7. I don’t drive as well (those cataracts, getting bigger each year, make those haloes from oncoming traffic at night even more annoying).

      I don’t hear as well, nor do I breathe as well or remember as well as I used to

      And so on and so on. It’s all a little depressing. To balance it out, I’ve started thinking about what I’m still good at—what, maybe, I’m even better at now.

      Here’s my list:

•       Still good (maybe better) at crossword puzzles and the New York Times “Spelling Bee.” I’ve learned, over time, that the word for south Asian rice pudding is congee and that you can also spell genie as genii and here’s the five-letter word for spherical bacteria (cocci).

•       Still a good sense of humor. I’m still able to laugh and make jokes even when there’s nothing particularly funny about the moment we’re living in. Even able to laugh and make jokes about how my seeing, hearing and breathing are deteriorating.

•       Still good at reading. So far this year, I’ve read eight books, about a book every two weeks. Because so much written matter is now so easily available, I am reading all the time—newspapers and magazines (digitally and in print), emails, Substacks, blogs, social media posts. I’m probably reading more than I ever have. It helps if you don’t have an actual job.

•       Relatedly, I’m still good at typing. I learned how to type in Mr. Metzelaar’s seventh grade class, faithfully placing my left hand fingers on asdf and my righthand fingers on jkl;, the “home keys.” It was the most important thing I learned in three years of junior high and I’ve never forgotten it, which is good because I have completely lost any ability to write in cursive or even to print.

•        Still good at shaving. Of course, it helps that I now have a beard and there’s a smaller area that needs shaving. But I nick myself less frequently than before. It could be because my aged skin is tougher but I like to think it’s because I use better shave cream.

•       I’m still good at remembering odd, obscure, useless pieces of information. Freed from the tyranny of always recalling where keys or sunglasses are, my mind is always available to recall, for instance, the last line of the movie “King Kong” (“’Twas beauty that killed the beast.”).

•       I’m still good—actually, better—at keeping in touch with old friends. Sure, it’s easier now, what with all the technology, with social media, with Zooming and FaceTiming and such. But I’m also at the age when I have started to realize that old friends won’t be around forever and so better get in touch and stay in touch now before forever arrives.

      What are you still good at?