Sportsman's Corner: Aging Gracefully

A retired teacher, I occasionally run into former students. Sometimes one of them might say to me, “Well, Tate, you look the same. You don’t look any older.”

I often reply, “Thank you, but that probably means I looked pretty bad when I had you in class,” which might be closer to the truth.

Recently, the editor of an outdoor publication I sometimes write for told me that he thought I was “aging gracefully.” I took this as a compliment, but it caused me to reflect about myself.

I’m going to turn 70 this year, and I would like to think that I am aging gracefully. However, in m...