Time – V. Time and Age
Date Posted: March 29th, 2007
Throughout our lives we play a game with time. I am at a loss to find an appropriate name for this game. Is it hide-and-seek? If we pretend we don’t notice time, then perhaps it won’t see us either?
From 7 until 20 we are in a hurry to grow up, to become adults, to test our wonderful theories, to change the world. So far so good, for indeed every new generation brings new ideas that create progress.
At 20 something changes. This young woman is all of a sudden aware that she is entering the third decade of her life. Growing up is not what it’s cracked up to be. She becomes aware that the world is challenging her ideas. This started in her teens, but she ignored it and forged ahead anyway. Now, she is more mature and is paying attention. There are other problems as well. The unlined face of her teen years is beginning to show the lines of time. Oh, not to worry, very, very few lines.
Then comes 30. There are more visible signs. Energy suddenly is a finite resource. We can no longer work all day, go to sleep at 4:00 A.M., and be ready to face another day. And do this day after day until we collapse from exhaustion and sleep 14 hours straight. Life has so many constraints; we laugh at the grandiose ideas we harbored during our twenties. Physically, the lines are more visible and more numerous, not to mention the waistline! However, the howling wolf is still far away; we can hear it but we need not concern ourselves with it.
For a long time, before modern medicine added so many years to our lives, 40 was the age when we had to face our own mortality. This is no longer the case. Life expectancy being what it is, at 40, generally speaking, we are half-way through. However, the wolf is getting closer, but is not yet at the door. In our forties, we have a lot of responsibilities: our children are growing; our work, if we have suitably progressed, is getting more demanding; our spouse may be fighting his/her own demons, and that will have an impact on the family. But the news is not all bad. We are more mature in our forties, more accepting of other people’s shortcomings. We are still youthful; we can still catch the eye of the members of the opposite sex. At 50, depending upon individual circumstances, things can get even better. We begin to look at the world with new eyes. “Now I understand,” crosses our minds more often.
Education means that we take better care of ourselves, listen to the dictates of modern medicine, and live a longer and healthier life. Of course, this is not a blanket statement. There are still many individuals who abuse their bodies. They burn the candle at both ends and may not live to see 60. Individually, none of us do all the right things all the time. We are humans after all. What I trying to say here is that the line which marks old age is blurred. Is it 60? 70? 80 no doubt, but there are exceptions. Nevertheless, and this brings me to my next topic, beginning at 60 the wolf is already at the door. We can no longer ignore our own mortality.
