Old, Older, Oldish

Last Wednesday, Hubby and I were taking our 2 grandsons to the park and having a serious discussion on
the state of the world...OK..the state of the world from the vantage point of a 5 year old.  Anyway...Grandson #1 was discussing the fact that he has two homes.  His "everyday home" is where he lives with his mommy, daddy and little brother, AND his spare home...which is Grandma and Grandpa's house.  "Of course" we say, "Our house is your house!"


 This is where the conversation took a decidedly bad turn.  Hubby asked G-Boy #1, if when Grandma and Grandpa get old, can we live at his  house.

G-Boy #1 didn't miss a beat, before he said.  " I will have a house someday, but you will be dead already."

Which brings me to our subject today..



Thought Number One:    When is Old, REALLY Old

I was sitting with my two older friends with whom I meet every Wednesday morning for coffee, when we were discussing the loss of a mutual friend.  I thought our friend was 72, but  both my pals assured me that Betty was 78.  They said they had already seen her obit and were pretty sure of their facts.  I, of course, was going on the fact that Betty had told me not-so-long-ago that she was 72.   OK..now she is gone and I am going to let her apparent dishonesty slide.

At that point in the conversation, the younger of my two friends who I think is  72  (and who knows... at this point... as it appears women lie about their age) says "Gosh, that is so young to pass away!"  The other friend, who is 87 commiserates and agrees whole heartedly that 78 years "young" is really too young to pass away.  

REMEMBER, a couple of weeks ago, I was talking about PERSPECTIVE.  Well, from my perspective 78 is fairly old...sort of.  You may notice a little apprehension on my part to be too adamant about what constitutes old as I am clearly on the first steps of the porch of "old" and getting ready to knock on the door  of "elderly"  (according to my grandson, I am hanging out inside the house of "decrepit", evidently)

I have come up with a calculator of sorts to decide "what is old".  That way I no longer have to randomly decide what constitutes old.  As a public service to my readers, I give you the OLDOMETER.

People that are 12 or more years older than you...ARE OLD.

People that are 12 or more years younger than you are young.

Everyone else is your peer group.

FOR EXAMPLE:  A 20 year old is totally justified to think of a 32 year old is old.  But a 60 year old is going to think that 32 year old as extremely young.  


SO...when our 5 year old grandson is looking at us, he must be amazed that we are alive now, let alone 20 years from now.  I am sure if he knew the word "ancient" it would apply.



Thought Number Two:   Delusion and Denial Works Well

There is an escape hatch as far as this theory goes.  Just convince yourself that you are the exception.

I have this other friend....let's call her Amy... that frequently reminds everyone how well she is aging.  Amy, unfortunately, looks for endorsement of her youthful looks by asking others to guess her age. More times than not, that doesn't have a favorable outcome.  One person called her by her mother's name and guessed
an age in the neighborhood of her mother's age.  That person now has a permanent place on Amy's  S*** list. 

I would never ask a question that I don't want an answer to.  The fact is that from someone elses perspective you may look extremely young or extremely old.

Not long ago I saw a picture of the group that attended my 40 year high school reunion. At least half the class I didn't recognize. (and it's not the large of class).  Then there was half the class that look nearly like they did in high school.  Of course, they aged but are still totally recognizable.  I didn't attend so there is no way of knowing if my classmates would of recognized me.  I am better off not knowing.

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