Skin in the game...

“What is the difference between a taxidermist and a tax collector? 

The taxidermist takes only your skin.”

– Mark Twain

The pants are a bit baggy around the knees, and the seat has gotten pretty worn.  The same thing is happening around the elbows at the sleeves.  The shoulders are in pretty good shape, but the body of the thing seems to have stretched out more than I thought it would.

I am certain the tailor knew what he was doing when he created the outfit.  After all, the specifications were pretty demanding.  The material he chose was of the finest quality…thin, but incredibly resilient.  He made it to breathe in the summer for coolness, and act like a bit of insulation in the chillier months of the year.   The suit’s custom tailoring was excellent and as a bonus it was water resistant!   

I wasn’t really conscious of the all that it took to create this outfit, because, it was in fact a gift from my parents.  Decades passed before I understood anything about it.  You know what they say, once you have been wearing something for a while, you don’t even notice you have it on.  I honestly never gave the thing much thought.

Now because of my age, possibly a little more thoughtfulness, I am paying a lot more attention.  They say until you have ‘skin in the game’…something personal…it is more difficult to get certain things squarely on the radar.

Well, now it is squarely on the radar…and how.

The suit…

The clothing I’m talking about is skin...My skin!  It’s getting older and just doesn’t fit like it used to.  All the make-up, eyeliner, refresher cream has, in the end, done nothing to make this outfit any more resilient.  Okay, I have never worn any of that stuff, but it is clear, like most everything else about the house in which I live, my skin is changing.  

Even the exercise I do has not seemed to make a lot of difference.  As I grow older, the unrelenting effects of time and gravity and a little shrinking from the inside – less muscle mass and a little shortening in height – my skin now sags in a variety of different places.  In the old days, when I ‘got a little bigger’ (read put on weight) or a smaller, that skin hugged my bones as though it were painted on my frame.  This is no longer the case!

Custom build and function…

The thing about this pelt we all wear is that it does so much for us, and often until something happens, we don’t give it the credit it deserves.  When we think about vital organs, usually the brain or heart or lungs come to mind.  We don’t think of skin as the important organ that it is, but in fact, without it, everything else would have a very hard time surviving.

Skin is tough and resilient (think leather).  It controls body temperature, keeps body fluids and electrolytes in balance.  It contains nerve endings sensitive enough to discriminate sand paper from concrete and the softness of a new born baby’s cheek from the petal of a rose!  This dynamic, living carpet, is the first line of defense against disease and infection.  Unless damaged in some way, its ability to protect the body is more than impressive…it is, in fact ‘… the guardian of the castle!’

Aging – Yikes!

But then, like everything else in this finite piece of machinery, it slowly loses its tone and breaks down.  It loses strength and elasticity, becoming thinner, leading to greater risk for damage from sun or falls and cuts.  It doesn’t produce as much oil for lubrication as it used to, so it slowly takes on a dryer feel and paler look.  It’s padding and insulation abilities are reduced, making temperature regulation a little more difficult, and it doesn’t repair itself quite as well as it did in bygone years.

Skin ‘in’ the game?  In fact, as we age, we lose skin function ‘from’ the game!

It can be a little disheartening thinking about these outward appearance changes, particularly when one realizes the same kinds of changes are occurring in all of the rest of our vital organs.  On the other hand, not many of us have lived our lives or been accepted principally for our appearance.  We all appreciate that any outward attractiveness is only ‘skin deep.’  For those who love us, the last thing they would say in describing us is the character of our skin!

So, like everything else, our skin loses its resiliency as the years go by.  It has served us well, and if we take care of it, it will continue to do so.  Aging is kind of like chronic disease.  It can’t be cured – can’t turn back the clock – but rather managed it as the finish line makes its way toward each of us.

While there is no doubt, “The pants are a bit baggy around the knees, and the seat has gotten pretty worn,” I prefer to think of it as a reflection of a life well lived filled with people and experiences that far outweigh a little sagging and looseness around the edges.

When I look in the mirror and give it a little thought, that’s what I think about.

- ted