Did you believe your parents were old when they were the age you are now?

Hello, good people of my generation.

So much about age is perception, and that can be relative rather than absolute. I regarded my father was old when he was the age I am now (actively considering retirement).

Just before the pandemic, my father was in an auto accident. He was okay. His car was totaled. We asked him what happened. Mind you, he was in his 80s at the time (89 this year). He said, exact quote, “Some old guy ran the red light and T-boned me.” I thought, well, how old could the other guy possibly have been?

It probably doesn’t matter how old you are, somebody else will seem old, and your definition of young will be extended.

Or perhaps has something changed, and we are younger in a sense. We could reframe our worldview. Life expectancy is so much greater. My wife and I recently attended at a 100th birthday celebration of someone I worked with in a volunteer organization (she was active into her 90s). I read there are more centenarians than ever before. There also are more people, but the overall population is older on average. Thus, relative to billions, we are younger at 60 than our parents were at 60. We can expect to be around for more years per actuarial tables.

I welcome your opinion. Thank you for reading.