VIEWPOINT / WHAT IS OLD?

By Timothy Weaver, Ph.D.

We all have a picture of what old is. Mine formed when I was a child living in my grandparents’ home. My mom was older and my grandmother old. I remember my grandmother with stoop of shoulder and crepey face. She wore glasses and smiled at me. Her clothes looked old fashioned. She never went out in the sun without a shaw or a hat. She put on a long sleeve shirt to go out in the summer. Told us too much sun was dangerous. Wear shorts and a T? OMG. She was old.

I loved my grandmother despite her oldness. Sometimes I would wear her flannel nighties to bed. I loved sleeping with her in her bed that went down in the middle. We’d eventually roll together. But, she definitely was my image of old. I didn’t think to ask her whether she felt old, that she was old.

Now I’m many years older than my grandmother when I was a child. I’m stoop shouldered and have a crepey face. I wear glasses. I am old. But, am I? What is old? I don’t think of myself as old. I don’t feel old. In fact I feel pretty much the way I did when I was young. I’m fortunate. My mind works reasonably well and I stay in shape.

I’m realizing that old is merely a construct deployed by the young to grasp the difference between their appearance and mine. We are the same person despite the passing years. Of course, we grow and gain new perspectives. I don’t see the world so differently as I understand it better. It’s the understanding that comes with experience, curiosity and learning which best describes the difference between young and old. The physical differences are just the machine parts showing wear and tear.

The brain ages because it is part of the machine. The mind doesn’t age unless we allow it to. That is key. The mind. When say people are old we include the whole deal. But we are wrong. Not the mind.

The mind is the radio signal. It is the output of brain mechanics, electrical impulses and quantum physics. The transmitter can go bad, breakdown, wear out. The signal fades, is disrupted or stochastic. The cause is the transmitter. The mind may fade because the brain ages or fails.

But, sadly, we allow our minds to fade by choice. Our little aches and pains and maybe far more serious conditions convince us we’re old. Our bodies may be but not our minds—unless we allow it.

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