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AGE and AGEING

 Age is just a number. You are only as old as you feel. Ageing is just another word for living. It's not how old you are, it's how you are old.

You probably have heard most if not all of those statements. Depending on your age when you heard them, you may have chuckled, or you may have just ignored them.

What is old? Age IS a number. We use it to have a measure of someone's maturity, although it is not a very good indicator of this. As for how old one may feel, I cannot speak for others but for me that means there are days I have one foot in the grave and others that I should join in a T-ball game. 

To a 4 year old, a 10 year old is - old! In fact, I have a formula - if you are from 5 to 15 in age - someone that is half-again older than you - rounded up to the next whole year, is old (for clarity - I am not talking "ancient", just old). For example, a 6 year old would consider a 9 year old - old. They can stay up later. Instead of being in first grade, they are in the third or fourth. To a 11 year old a 17 year old is old. They are going to high school, can drive, can have a job, etc. 

Now, you get to 16, you are driving. Other permissions have opened up to you as well. So, a 24 year old may not seem old, just older. To continue my formula, from 16+ someone twice your age is old. A 20 year old would consider a 40 year old - old; and so on.

Self-perception of age is different. The "not how old you are..." quote comes into play. If you are relatively healthy, with no serious mobility issues, 65 may not be old to you. There is a cognitive aspect to this as well. If your mental faculties are operating sufficiently, that too will keep you "young" if only in your mind. By the same token, if getting around and/or performing daily activities is difficult or impossible, you will more than likely feel "old" whatever your chronological age may be.

To be fair here. I am not sure exactly where to go with this. This thought came to me in the middle of the night and I have also been interrupted a few times while writing it. So, I will end with a poem and be done.

 Getting Old

There are things I can’t remember,

That I’m not sure I ever knew.

There are places that I can’t recall,

I’m not sure I’ve ever been to.

There are people I can’t picture,

I'm not positive I ever met.

It can be hard to say if I ever knew,

Or if I did just forget.

 

                                                                       “THE”

                                                                      4/8/17


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