Melville Cooke

Mi howl but me no cowl

- Jamaican saying

When 36-year-old tennis player Andre Agassi blew tearful goodbye kisses at the US Open over the weekend, it marked the end of a colourful 21-year career in the upper echelons of a very competitive sport.

He had a bad back, requiring injections to dull the pain and he moved about as nimbly as a JUTC bus corners \\, but he was there, four years short of official middle age, making it to the third round of one of the four tennis Grand Slam events.

It reinforced what I have been thinking about for some time, about how athletes are lasting longer at or very near the top of international competitions. This has strong implications for societies in which people are living longer, with good medical care, for if someone can play professional sports well into their 30s and 40s then people who are aging can keep active and enjoy their lives longer.

Living examples

Aging is not a curse, but you can blight your body through lack of physical care and a pessimistic attitude. Athletes who keep going and going are living examples of the possibility of aging very well.

That B.C. Lara, love him or hate him (I lean towards the latter) is able to not only make the West Indies team at 38, but field in the slips where very sharp reflexes are required, as well as speed to chase balls which 'slip' through the cordon. At 46 Merlene Ottey is looking forward to at least another year of top quality sprinting for Slovenia; there are those who say she should stop, but I say kids who were born well after she ran at the 1980 Moscow Olympics should be ashamed if they can't beat her.

Courtney Walsh was 36 or 37 when he broke the bowling record for most Test wickets in 2000 and Zinedine Zidane was 34 when he delivered a delicious head-butt in his final and that final World Cup Match. It was a strike of rare beauty. Nobody knows quite how old Mike McCallum was when he has snatching bodies in the middleweight division, but Lennox Lewis was heading up to 39 when he retired as heavyweight king. Of course, from Ali to Holyfield, numerous boxers have gone on way too long in a brutal sport.

It is not only the older athletes who provide inspiration for those who are aging. I saw Jimmy Cliff, at 56 deliver a tremendous set of about 90 minutes (if I remember correctly) at the 2005 Rebel Salute concert, his voice strong, his movements sharp, his eyes vibrant. Toots Hibbert, who is a bit older than Cliff, has biceps and triceps that any 'profiling' young man would be proud to display in sleeveless shirts and recently returned from the Reggae Sunsplash tour across the U.S., delivering high energy 'Bam Bam'. Francisco 'The Mighty Sparrow' Slinger and Owen 'Blakka' Ellis, who is much younger, of course, are going great guns and look almost like kids (not the goat ones, Mister Blakka). I suspect that a little slackness pours from the fountain of youth.

Turning the corner and heading towards a century on this planet, former Governor-General Howard Cooke is a phenomenon, strong of speech and movement, quick of wit. I do not know how old Dudley Thompson is, but he is as sharp as they come and he was considered older from I first heard of him a couple decades ago around the 1980 general election.

Wonderful examples

All these public figures and many that I am sure we all know in our day- -to-day lives, are wonderful examples of how to grow older. They have drive, they have purpose and I notice that most seem to be always smiling or at least seem content. The days of near carefree youth that we can truly appreciate (about 19 to 24, I estimate) are as brief as a Dancehall Queen's panties; the days of adulthood that we can truly savour are as long as we want to make them, save accident or terrible illness, with good diet, exercise and a positive attitude. And if we have regular check-ups we can nip many of those illnesses in the bud.

And then there are Viagra and Levitra for the buds that need to keep growing and growing and growing.

You ova 50 and loving it.

- Chetenge

Melville Cooke is a freelance writer.