There is a tendency to glamorize our youth, to remember – incorrectly – all the days as joyous and carefree. We yearn for a time when the aches and pains were not yet upon us, when we could grasp life with a longer reach.
We forget that when we were younger, it still was hard. There was the broken leg in high school, that back problem at 29, bellyfat at 35, a hernia at 40. There was the anxiety of child-rearing, the worry about career and finances, the question of whether she really loved him, whether he really wanted her.
With age, we begin to have a problem with memory loss: we remember an earlier time as easier. In reality, each day poses its own challenges. Each day we bring our own assortment of skills, abilities and perspectives to bear upon them. Young or old, we still do the same thing: our best for the given time.