LETTERS: WE LOSE, GAIN AS WE GROW OLDER

To the editor:

There is something I have noticed as I take this fast train ride through my 50s. It is how a person keeps experiencing new things while growing old

. The thing that has been the most obvious is how one keeps losing things. You lose your hair, your teeth, eyesight, strength, vital body organs and, I'm confidant, dozens of other things if I could only remember. I think memory is one of those things.

I do remember that you lose friends you have known for a lifetime, and you look to see which ones every day in the paper.

Not all is lost, however. There are some things you gain, such as weight, cataracts, wrinkles and age spots along with aches and pains in places you didn't even know you had. Who knows, perhaps you didn't even have those places.

Yes, growing old is like a tree in the fall, shedding its beauty, preparing for winter. I don't like winter. Do you?

RON FARROW

Cape Girardeau