There were two really excellent stories in the latest issue of Esquire that stood out to me. The first was "Gentlemen, Gentlemen, Be of Good Cheer, for They Are Out There, and We Are in Here" by Chris Jones on Hugh Hefner. It's a thorough account that's got some tremendously interesting anecdotes about Hefner... especially around the long-standing relationships he's made with both friends and employees.
The second was "How a Percy Gets Old", an essay by Benjamin Percy on the writer and people from his life. There's great material throughout, but what really struck me was the section below on his neighbor...
"He understands how things work, how to put them together and pull them apart, in a way that I do not. Maybe this has something to do with his job as a family physician at the Allina Medical Clinic in Faribault, Minnesota. The body is just another machine to him. Blood replaces oil, tendons replace wires, joints replace gears. He buys the best brands — and maintains them — because he wants them to last. He eats the best food — and exercises religiously — because he sees every day what happens to people who don't take care of themselves.
Dave says there are two types of aging: physical and psychological. Physical aging is what we see, but psychological aging is what we feel. They don't always advance together. Often the mind gives in before the body. Once the indestructibility of youth is gone, people start to feel old even though their body remains quite capable. 'Often this happens to people in their late twenties and early thirties,' Dave says. 'Like you.' And that, he says, is the beginning of the end. People gain weight. They stop conditioning. They prepare their body for the chronic disease that will knock them out years later. 'You are,' he says, 'your own worst enemy.'"
