On Reckoning Age

Tomorrow I turn 60.  It's caused me to do a lot of thinking lately about reckoning age -- you know, figuring out how old you are.

Typically, of course, we start counting when a baby is born and add a year to his or her age when the child reaches the same day in the next calendar year, and we celebrate with a party.

But in traditional eastern Asia, the baby is considered one year at birth and marks the second birthday on the next Lunar New Year.  So a child born in December can already be considered two-years-old within weeks of his or her birth!

Some folks say you're as old as you feel.  That is such a flexible standard that I'm not sure I could handle being such divergent ages one day to the next.

When is middle age? According to the US Census, those who fit into the 35-44 and 45-54 age categories are considered "middle age."  Tom's sister Carol, however, insists that the new middle age begins at 60.  And one guru I read about says it begins at 75!

This is confusing.  Have I been old for the past six years and didn't know it, am I on the verge of middle age, or do I still have 15 years of youth left?

Some people lie about their age, refuse to say it out loud, or just plain quit counting.  My mom took a more pro-active approach.  She shifted paradigms.

When Mom got to be the age I am now, she found it impossible to utter any age that started with the letter s.  She tried, but the word wouldn't come out.  "S-s-s-s-s-s-s-s..." she'd say, but that's as far as she could go.  So she switched to Celsius.  On her birthday she did not turn 60, she turned 15.56 Celsius!  You don't age so quickly when you reckon with Celsius; Mom is now a mere 27.22 years old, a long way from middle age no matter who's definition you use!