Easy to Bruise

I have found in recent years that I bruise easily.

This morning when I went into the shower I noticed two big black and blue marks; one on my chest and another further south on my gut.  Initially I was taken aback by the marks, but then realized how I got them.

Yesterday and Saturday in an attempt to clear some snow from my roof without risking my life standing on the roof, I leaned outside upstairs windows--first with a canoe paddle, then with a shovel, and lastly with a long push broom. I swatted down icicles, pushed snow off the roof, and in what was some sort of acrobatic move, shoveled snow behind me off of the roof.

In order to get as far out as possible, I had to swim out of three narrow windows. In one case I had gotten out up to my thighs, but for the most part my body was out from the belt up. I was regularly banging my chest on the base of the windows.

Therefore, I have these marks on my chest. And besides that, I am sore.  I know that if I was 30 or 40, I would not be as sore as I am today or as bruised.

On my morning commute today I began to think of this phenomenon as metaphor.  As a young man I tended to think that as we got older we became wiser, and less likely to bruise from emotional affronts that would set us reeling as adolescents and newly minted college graduates. I figured that we would be stronger because of our experience, networks of friends, growing extended families, and accrued wisdom.

Don't think so.  I think--like my chest today--the bruises from emotional injury are more likely to surface as we age.