We’re all getting older, the lucky ones, anyway.

Hear those ankles and knees crack and pop? Rejoice. Sore back, receding hairline and an unwanted roll or two around the middle? Celebrate.

Aging is part of life. Most of us wish to experience it even as we curse the fleeting days of youth. The fact is, getting older, even downright old, can have its joys.

This was hammered home recently when I read an interview with Bob Dylan. On AARP’s website.

Yes, you read that right. AARP — the American Association of Retired Persons. Dylan says he is only doing one interview to promote his new work, and he selected AARP.

Actually, it makes sense. Dylan started out as the voice of youth and protest, but that was more than half a century ago. Bob is now 73, and his latest album (CD? MP3? Streaming? I can’t keep track of all these newfangled ways to listen to our old records) is a collection of “uncovers” of Frank Sinatra songs.

In the interview — which is well worth a read — Dylan admits he didn’t listen to Sinatra when he was younger, but now considers him a tremendous talent, “the mountain” that any singer tackling these songs must face.

Dylan said he realizes times and tastes change. That’s one reason he talked to AARP, and provided 50,000 copies of the CD to its subscribers.

“Passion is a young man’s game. Young people can be passionate,” Dylan said to AARP Editor Robert Love, a former Rolling Stone managing editor.

“Older people gotta be more wise. I mean, you’re around a while, you leave certain things to the young,” Bob said, offering sound advice. “Don’t try to act like you’re young. You could really hurt yourself.”

He has reinvented himself time and time again. The angry young rocker who just had to escape from Minnesota’s Iron Range became the world-famous troubadour and protest singer of the 1960s.

Then, after seeking shelter from the storm of publicity in the late 1960s, he re-emerged in the ’70s as a touring force, playing with The Band and his own motley assortment of musicians.

In the late 1970s, he released three gospel albums, “Slow Train Coming,” “Saved” and “Shot of Love.” They stunned critics and many fans and I was not thrilled by them, although some of the songs, such as “Gotta Serve Somebody,” were solid.

By 1983, Dylan seemed to reclaim his Judaism, visiting the Wailing Wall in Jerusalem. He has sought to keep his private life private, as he married and divorced twice, maybe three times.

After years of hard drinking and drug abuse, he has reportedly been sober for more than a decade. That is also a sign of the wisdom of advanced years.

He has written books, including a fascinating look at his life and career titled “Chronicles.” Dylan’s voice is clear in its pages; no one could ghost-write that intricate, compelling style.

He’s still the idol of millions, although the songs don’t come as easily, he admits. Dylan is aware time in the spotlight is fleeting, which may explain his near-constant touring for the past 25 years.

I have seen him twice, including a co-headlining gig with Tom Petty and the Heartbreakers in Houston in 1986. In “Chronicles,” Dylan said it was the worst show of his career. Lucky me.

I saw him again a few years ago in Sturgis, when he opened for Kid Rock during the biker rally. Once again, Bob was not dazzling, but he was there, and that was cool.

I’m just glad he’s still out there. As he wrote and sang in 1997, “It’s not dark yet, but it’s getting there.”