I am a dues paying member of Anytime Fitness, an exercise club in Mandan. Some of the same people can be seen pretty regularly working out whenever I go, usually Monday, Wednesday, and Friday mornings. One of them is a grizzled old Vietnam veteran whose license plate I've noticed bears the Purple Heart decoration. Stand-offish a bit at first but now easy to approach, I struck up a short conversation with him one day about how much harder it is to work out now that we've gotten older. Soon we were talking about how we could work long hours hauling hay bales when younger. For some reason I then thought I could quote Tennyson's line from the poem "Ulysses": Tho much is taken, much abides and though/ We are not that strength which in old days/ Moved earth and heaven, that which we are, we are... He was quick to reply, "Yah, and Popeye said 'I am what I am.'" His comic strip humor trumped my literary quote, and I've had a couple of good laughs with my wife when recalling it here at home.I see the picture I took yesterday of the barn and windmill tower as a metaphor for the aging process and accepting the present state for what it is. They too have gotten old, but with a little fixing up could still be useful.
