How old is “old age”? One Sunday, Rev. Fred Dillon (who was, at the time, a young 83-years-old) said that, at one time, he thought 55 was old, but now he thinks it is young. It seems that the older one gets, the older “old age” gets. Bernard Baruch said, “To me, old age is always 15 years old than I am.”

“Old” age is relative. My four-year-old granddaughter thinks all adults are thirty-one. According to her, her mom is thirty-one, her aunts are thirty-one, her great grandma is thirty-one, and I am thirty-one. In her mind, the perfect age to be is 10 because that’s the age of her cousin.

The “old” in old age depends on how everything is perceived. James Thurber once said, “I am 65 and I guess that puts me in with the geriatrics. But if there were 15 months in every year, I’d only be 48. That’s the trouble with us. We number everything. Take women for example. I think they deserve to have more than 12 years between the ages of 28 and 40.”

Perhaps women feel growing old more keenly than men do. Women view age in steps. For instance, there are 10 years between the ages of 20 and 30, but 9 of these don’t matter. It’s turning the big year with the zero at the end that counts.

I received an email that shows the different age steps women go through. Having been through some of these stages and having raised three daughters, I can attest to the tongue-in-cheek truthfulness of these statements:

At age three, a girl looks at herself and sees a princess. At age eight, she sees herself as Cinderella or Sleeping Beauty.

At 15, she might look at herself and see a princess or a cheerleader one minute, but the next minute she might see fat/pimples/ugly and could never be seen like that at school.

At age 20, she sees “too fat/too thin, too short/too tall, hair too straight/hair too curly” but decides she’s going out anyway.

At 30, she decides she doesn’t have time to fix her hair and goes out anyway. At 40, she looks at herself and sees “too fat/too thin, too short/too tall, too straight/too curly” but says, “At least I’m me,” and goes out anyway.

At 50, she looks at herself and sees “I am” and goes wherever she wants to go. At 60, she looks at herself and reminds herself of all the people who can’t even see themselves in the mirror anymore. Out she goes unafraid of the world, seeking new experiences.

At 70, she looks at herself and sees wisdom, laughter, and ability. She goes out and enjoys life