I will be 73 in a bit less than a week.  Am I old? Well, we do live in a retirement community, although those of us under 75 are rare.  We know a lot of folks over 85 and even some over 95.  I am a youngster here.

But that does not keep me from thinking about age, in the sense of diminishing abilities. We try though to keep ourselves in decent shape.  Daily we exercise together in our basement while we watch Great Courses lectures.  So we get a touch smarter as well as in better shape.  Sare currently attends both yoga and T'ai-Ch'i classes, and I might even join her. We walk almost everywhere on our multi-acre campus. We also do not over-eat and also watch what we eat.  I have long done that as a vegetarian which I started doing in my later 40s to become healthier. 

We also do the various medical checks when they come up.  In my last one a cancerous intestinal polyp led to surgery where I had a slice of colon wall removed along with various other things, and I came out of it with no cancer anywhere and a refashioned colon. 

Then there is the brain.  We both read a lot and watch educational stuff on TV and try to keep the gray cells from withering away.  They may someday but not quite yet.

I also garden which, while not aerobic, is good exercise and it is fun as well.  We grow only flowers and most of them are doing well as I write this. Sara still runs some Humanities book discussions as well as giving free lectures here reworked from her many past faculty presentations.

So there is exercise for the mind and the body.  And the clock still ticks along.  I can remember things early in life, and most things at almost 73.  
We also know if anything of an emergency nature happens to us, we push a button and medical help comes running over.  That is comforting to know just in case.

Back to the beginning, am I old?  The answer is yes, but not that old (call it Early Old) and we do stuff to keep ourselves as healthy as possible.  Will we make 80 or 90?  Perhaps.  But until the Stop sign goes up, we enjoy our days and we sleep well, and and all those things.
So on we go.  We hope others do what we do to keep old old age away for at least a few - and perhaps many - years.