What Age Would You Be?
Anyone who stops learning is old, whether at twenty or eighty. Anyone who keeps learning stays young. The greatest thing in life is to keep your mind young. Henry Ford.
The late Bernard Baruch, financier and advisor to many US presidents was in his late eighties and still going strong, when someone asked him how old he thought ‘old’ was. He replied, “old is fifteen years older than I am.”
That thought occurred to me recently as I was standing in line at the cash desk, waiting to pay for a bottle of wine. There was an attractive, younger woman ahead of me buying a bottle as well.
As she was taking the money out of her purse, the cashier politely asked her for identification, thinking that she might be under age. Here, in Ontario, you have to be at least 19 years of age to purchase wine or liquor.
“I hope you don’t think I’m being personal,” he said. “It’s the law.”
Now, I’m not good at guessing ages but she didn’t look anymore than 30 to me. From my vantage point she is just getting started.
Her face immediately lit up. Laughing, as she handed over her ID card, she replied, “Mind? Are you kidding? I’m flattered. The way my week’s going, I feel like I’m 40!”
She’s not alone. At some point we all reach an invisible, or not so invisible wall, where we begin to feel that we are getting old. Or think we are. Especially in this day and age.
The truth is though, aging doesn’t happen at any given hour or day or decade. The process is not biologically set in stone. It’s all about staying open, continually learning and being willing to adapt to change.
We all age, of course, but we have a choice. It’s a mindset. We can’t stop the clock, but as it keeps ticking, we can resolve to be old or older. We can remain young at heart.
So here’s a question to start off your week:
If you didn’t know how old you were, what age would you be?
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