Old is a realtive concept

Started by Orcs, 04 March 2018, 11:58:23 PM

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Orcs

Reading through entries on the deaths in 2018 thread it and the comments saying that Person X was not that old, it did occur to me that this is a relative position, judged from where we are in life and our age.

In our teens and 20's anybody over 30 was old and children were young.  Now in my 50s young is less than 40, old has moved to post 70.

Likewise Mrs Orcs Grandma used to do the shopping for the "Old Dears up the road" who were 90 when she herself was well into her 80's. 

My Son-in-Law who is 28 has a friend of the same age who  while being a really nice bloke has attitudes and behaviours that make me look young.

So perhaps the adage that "your only as old as the person you feel" (take that anyway you like folks :d ) is correct. 

The cynics are right nine times out of ten. -Mencken, H. L.

Life is not a matter of holding good cards, but of playing a poor hand well. - Robert Louis Stevenson


Westmarcher

Quote from: Orcs on 04 March 2018, 11:58:23 PM

My Son-in-Law who is 28 has a friend of the same age who while being a really nice bloke has attitudes and behaviours that make me look young.

So perhaps the adage that "you're only as old as the person you feel" (take that anyway you like folks :d ) is correct. 


Why are we not surprised?  ;) :P ;D

[Kettle calling the pot, black? I'll be 64 this month.  :-[ ]
I may not have gone where I intended to go, but I think I have ended up where I needed to be.

sunjester

Quote from: Orcs on 04 March 2018, 11:58:23 PM


My Son-in-Law who is 28 has a friend of the same age who  while being a really nice bloke has attitudes and behaviours that make me look young.


I've met 8 year olds who make Orcs "seem" young! :d

d_Guy

Getting the various components (physical, mental, emotional say) all synchronized seems the real trick. When I was eighteen I was mentally eighty and emotionally thirteen. Now that I am over seventy (old in Orc's typology), I am mentally seven, emotionally fourteen and physically ninety-two and one half. Of course that's today, tomorrow everything will be different.  In relativity there are no absolutes (except the speed of light, of course, but even here I am skeptical).
Sleep with clean hands ...

Orcs

Quote from: d_Guy on 05 March 2018, 01:33:10 PM
. Now that I am over seventy (old in Orc's typology),

Ah but when I get to seventy "Old" will have been reclassified to ninety.
The cynics are right nine times out of ten. -Mencken, H. L.

Life is not a matter of holding good cards, but of playing a poor hand well. - Robert Louis Stevenson

Orcs

Quote from: sunjester on 05 March 2018, 10:35:53 AM
I've met 8 year olds who make Orcs "seem" young! :d

My two step-daughters sent me a birthday card a couple of years back "Happy 5th Birthday"

Anyway Sunjester is just jealous, until very recently I was the youngest regular member of  our club.
The cynics are right nine times out of ten. -Mencken, H. L.

Life is not a matter of holding good cards, but of playing a poor hand well. - Robert Louis Stevenson

d_Guy

Quote from: Orcs on 05 March 2018, 03:17:19 PM
Ah but when I get to seventy "Old" will have been reclassified to ninety.


Too late for me I'm afraid  :D
Sleep with clean hands ...

Leman

I thought old had already been reclassified to 90. Many of the walking club members are in their 70s and 80s, the oldest being 87.
The artist formerly known as Dour Puritan!

Raider4

Agree that 'old' is a state of mind. I'm convinced the wife's best friend was middle-aged when she was fifteen.

But some people take staying young too far. E.g. nobody should be riding a BMX or skateboard over the age of about 22, IMHO.

Norm

It's not how old you feel

It's how the marketing people feel how old you are

Watching TV recently, I noticed that adverts no longer speak to me, unless they are for comfy slippers and self raising chairs!

paulr

Quote from: Raider4 on 06 March 2018, 07:53:09 PM
But some people take staying young too far. E.g. nobody should be riding a BMX or skateboard over the age of about 22, IMHO.

I quite often see a number of people in three piece suits and with grey hair zipping around the Wellington streets or water front on their way to/from work on scooters, the foot powered ones ;)

They are actually a quite effective way of getting around our compact CBD :)
Lord Lensman of Wellington
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