How old would you be if you didn’t know your age?
I was reading something in a magazine last week when I came across what I consider to be one of the greatest lines ever written. It had little to do with the gist of the story and wasn’t attributed to anyone. I actually had flicked over it before its significance registered in slow motion and so I reversed and read it again. The ceist was asked; ‘how old would you be if you didn’t know your age?’. Think about that one for a minute…
You see, and whether we like it or not, most people behave and conform to behaviour that is expected of them at whatever age they are at. How many times have we all heard the remarks? ‘That wan should act her age, or ‘there he is… going around thinking he’s a young fella!’.
Despite that, I appreciate that it is only natural to want to be ‘young for our age’. A few years ago, I was offered a test to determine my ‘metabolic age’. Modesty prevents me from bragging about the difference in my metabolic age and my chronological age – all I’ll say here is that I threw the hurl in the boot of the car – just in case the lads are ever stuck.
By and large, our actions are strongly influenced by the fact that other people know our age. But it shouldn’t be like that, and there are exceptions. My Aunt Betty was close to 100 years old when she died. Most women of her generation dressed in greys and black on reaching their twilight years. Not so Auntie Betty; she tarted herself up in pinks, bright blue and all sorts of glitter until the end. In her mind she ‘didn’t know her age’ and I believe that aided her longevity.
‘Act your age’, we can be warned any time between the ages of nine and ninety… or worse still, ‘stop being childish.’ I put it to you, dear reader, that is the worst advice we have ever been given.
Again, what if you didn’t know your age – and nobody else knew it either; how would you act? Or how would you know that you weren’t supposed to be ‘childish’? How would you know when it was time to ‘act your age’ and concentrate on hobbies like bridge, rug-making, bingo, pottery and painting? If you didn’t know your age when would you stop playing tennis, jiving, and throwing snowballs?
Another comment that is regularly thrown in someone’s direction is; ‘you don’t look your age’. If nobody knows your age, nobody would know how you should look. If you didn’t know your own age, would you continue to be curious in trying new things? Would cynicism be permanently banished from the mind to retain more space for laughter, fun and adventure?
Wouldn’t we all be far more willing to start something new and try again?
Not everyone conforms to ‘acting their age’ – or more likely forgetting what age they are. As we write this article, 91-year-old Dale Sandes is hiking the 3,000 kilometre Appalachian Trail, taking in 14 states in America. I’m only 82 next month and I thought I was great to be heading off for the final leg of my Camino in September.
So, forget your age, count blessings instead of years. Chase dreams instead of dates and milk the joyous days.
Like I told them at this year’s Mullingar Literary Festival, Caroline Ruth Weden published her first book at the age of 102. Swedish shooter Oscar Swan won an Olympic gold medal at the age of 64, and followed it up with a silver when he was 72.
Finally, here is a warning for the Gorls against the perils of complacency. Australian, Lee Colley, became a daddy again at the age of 92. Obviously the bould Lee wasn’t listening when they told him to ‘act his age’. Or more likely, he was just one of the lucky ones who didn’t know his age.
Dorothy Williams is another great example of ‘strutting her sexy stuff’ and seemingly not knowing her age. Ms Williams was a striptease artist (still is – for all we know) and she became famous in 2016 when she performed a burlesque dance routine on ‘America’s Got Talent’ at the age of 90! Bernie Barker was another stripper who entered the ‘Guinness Book of Records’ as the world’s oldest male stripper. He began his career at the age of 66.
All that shows is that age is just a number and we would all be so much better off if we didn’t know that number!
Don’t Forget
There are some people who can’t tell a lie, some people who can’t tell the truth, and a few others who can’t tell the difference.