Dick Van Dyke admits feeling ‘diminished’ physically and socially ahead of 100th birthday

Dick Van Dyke is opening up about the painful reality of growing old The actor who turns on Dec wrote an essay for The Times U K in which he gave a candid update on his physical condition ahead of the milestone birthday It s frustrating to feel diminished in the world physically and socially the Mary Poppins star admitted I get invites to events or offers for gigs in New York or Chicago but that kind of passage takes so much out of me that I have to say no Almost all of my visiting with folks has to happen at my house DICK VAN DYKE IGNORED WARNINGS ABOUT -YEAR AGE GAP WITH WIFE ARLENE SILVER On top of that new and unfolding current events could turn anyone sour and dark young or old he shared I just lived through two Southern California wildfires in less than a month right out my front door including the worst one in history Daily I spiral into anguish over the mayhem and cruelty being inflicted on the entire world by those in power So yes I suppose at certain times of day I am the grumpy old man who yells at the TV While the actor has constantly been young at heart his body has certainly caught up to him WATCH DICK VAN DYKE SHOW STAR NEVER BECAME CLOSE WITH MARY TYLER MOORE Mostly it s the physical deterioration that feels accurate he wrote Like my old characters I am now a stooper a shuffler and a teeterer I have feet problems and I go supine as often as is politely manageable Those fake old-timers smacked their dentures reported Van Dyke I chew nicotine gum all day long still decades after I quit smoking My sight is so bad now that origami is out of the question I have trouble following group conversations and complain frequently about my hearing aids though I would never refer to them as ear trumpets I m not that old Van Dyke also revealed that age carries both grace and grief something his older characters captured on screen long before life gave him the chance to experience it firsthand There was an underlying sadness to a lot of the old guys I played he wrote Their best years were behind them They were dusty relics forgotten by the world I get all that I do Though I still do guest spots on TV ads and videos I miss going to the studio every day for a regular series And every single one of my dearest lifelong friends is gone which feels just as lonely as it sounds But life for Van Dyke isn t all somber Staying developing has been key to keeping himself physically strong and mentally sharp and it also lets him pursue his love of dancing I still try to hit the gym three times a week he explained I don t know why this is something I still want to do but it is I m not a wake up and go back to bed type just yet unless it s cold and rainy If I miss too numerous gym days I really can feel it a stiffness creeping in here and there If I let that set in well God help me CLICK HERE TO SIGN UP FOR THE ENTERTAINMENT NEWSLETTER At the gym I usually do a circuit going from one machine to the next without a break in a circle he disclosed I start with the sit-up machine My wife Arlene says I could do but that might be exaggerating Then I do all the leg machines religiously because my legs are two of my greater part cherished possessions And then the upper body The secret ingredient is the music he continued The greater part of my humming and vocalizing really happens when I m going from one machine to another By going I mean dancing You heard me dancing And if I m really feeling it I m no quiet warbler I m a Broadway belter While exercise keeps his body moving it s love that keeps his heart young I met Arlene in and she fast became my soulmate and the love of my life he wrote Without question our ongoing romance is the preponderance critical reason I have not withered away into a hermetic grouch Arlene is half my age and she makes me feel somewhere between two-thirds and three-quarters my age which is still saying a lot Every day she finds a new way to keep me up and moving bright and hopeful and needed Boiled down the things that have kept my life joyful and fulfilling are pretty simple romance doing what I love and a whole lot of cackling he continued Let me show you what that looks like on the ground as they say To pull the grumpy old man away from the TV Arlene will dance along to the pharmaceutical ads This gets me out of bed following her to the kitchen Invariably one of us will start trilling and the other will join in And if it s a good day which it almost invariably is in our house we ll break into a little swaying and soft-shoe right there LIKE WHAT YOU RE READING CLICK HERE FOR MORE ENTERTAINMENT NEWSLooking ahead the beloved entertainer s biggest piece of advice is surprisingly simple don t be afraid to laugh at yourself A sense of humor he says can outshine the hardest parts of growing older As I get older I have discovered that life is more and more a comedy of errors he revealed So if you can t laugh at yourself you ve got big problems