GETTING DOWN THE STEPS SIDEWAYS: SENESCENCE CATCHING UP

GETTING DOWN THE STEPS SIDEWAYS: SENESCENCE CATCHING UP

Last month I was in San Francisco. A lovely city, lots of nature, lots of culture, lots to see. Enjoyed roaming in the city. But there was one fly in the ointment. San Francisco is a city of hills; there were lots of steps everywhere. I noticed that going up the stairs was easier than coming down. This seems contradictory to the common sense; surely the body has to do more work going up against the pull of Mother Earth! But lately, it does not seem that way to me.

We went uphill on Hyde Street by the iconic wooden cable car and alighted at the highest point where it crosses Lombard Street.

 From here, at the top of one of America's crookedest streets you can see a beautiful scene. The road makes eight hairpin bends just in crossing one block! Each V shaped recesses on either side of the road are packed to the brim with Kaleidoscopic flowering shrubs. To savor the prettiness we decided to go all the way down the street on foot by the steep steps on the side of the road.

Here I experienced one of those rare movements when one feels joy and pain at the same time.  The joy of the beautiful sight and the malevolent ache in the knees in going down those millions of steps. I noticed that I was going down the steps sidewise, putting both feet on each step. What a relief it was when I reached the lower end. 

The sight was best from here too; the whole street looked like a vertical  multicoloured garden with cars and people creeping sinuously down like drops of rain on a stained glass window pane of a cathedral.

I used to run down the steps, two at a time only a few years ago. Few years? It does seem like a few years ago to me! In reality, probably decades ago.

 How did I reach this point, when to maintain the balance and power I have to adapt a tandem double stance sideways on each step while going down?

Going up the stairs I use single stance, each foot coming in touch with alternate steps only and it feels much secure.

I saw a television program many years ago where a comedian was asked “how one does know that old age has finally arrived”. He enumerated and enacted the following signs with great hilarity.

• 1.  When you start descending the stairs sideways.
• 2.  When children sit in the front of the car and you in the back.
• 3.  When you start using every public toilet just because it is there.
• 4.  When you ask others for time even though you are wearing a watch.
• 5.  When you go in the study to get a pen and come back with a book.
• 6.  When you bend down to pick up something, you start looking for what else you can do while you are there. 

He got a lot of laugh from the audience me included.

It must have looked very odd when I laughed loudly remembering that show when I reached at the lower end of Lombard Street.