Taiwan 2024 - Taitung Area, Rocky Pole / Getting Old (in some ways)

After visiting the rock formations already posted, we ended up exploring an area where the fishing vessels were based, and these artfully-placed rocks were affixed to the structural columns at a warehouse.  A little further along we encountered a score of restaurants that took advantage of the catches fresh off the boats docked nearby.  The place had the feel of a Moroccan bizarre, with the proprietors stationed outside their respective establishments imploring passersby to come inside.

Definitely see a bookmark in this one...

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I've observed that as a person ages there is much talk and angst about the gradual decline that takes place in one's memory, balance, reflexes and intellect, among other things.  So naturally, now that I'm 66 years old, I hear my share of it.  I now unfailingly use the handrail when negotiating stairs, am more careful of where my feet are placed during a walk, chew a little more slowly, and take exercise a little more seriously.  But I have no hangups when it comes to intellectual or memory decline, as this has been a fact of my life for as long as I can remember.  Nothing has changed there aside from the fact that names are now a little harder to come by.

As an example, one time during college my best childhood friend (Brent) and I went on a road trip from Beaumont to the Ozarks in northwest Arkansas.  This was the summer after my junior year in high school.  We did plenty of exploring, and got to know the area fairly well by the end of the week we were there.  There was a hilltop view that I especially remembered.

Thus, when a few years later I took a road trip there with my best college friend (Kevin) from Nacogdoches to the same place, I was eager to show him the sights.  We explored Eureka Springs, then the Bella Vista area.  In Bella Vista we drove to the top of a hill that had a great view.  I said to my friend, "This is great, but wait till I show you another view that's even better!"  So we drove around and parked near a trailhead, and hiked up to the top of this hill.  Sweeping my arm across the vista I exclaimed, "Now this is really great, isn't it?"  Kevin took one look and informed me that this was the exact same spot we were at a half hour ago!, only we climbed up the other side of the hill so in my mind the view was entirely different.  He then headed down by himself to the car, leaving me only a little bit chagrined up there by myself.  Only a little bit because Yes, we both knew that I was perfectly capable of creating such a moment.

That, plus countless other examples, leaves me feeling OK about this business of getting old, because in the ways that count not much has changed at all.