We’ll be fine

An arbitrary and inaccurate unit of measurement. That is age. It is measured in years, starting from the first breath that we take. Years differ in length, so age is already flawed. But, that’s beside the point.

The way we live our life is governed by our age. What we should do and what we shouldn’t do, are objects weighed against a meaningless number to see if it’s appropriate . I say meaningless, because it has no value. Age doesn’t define our knowledge or experience, nor does it reveal a person’s maturity. There are age limits for a plethora of things, be it a minimum or maximum age level. We go through life as kids who are encouraged to explore their imagination, yet as we grow up we are told to face reality. As older folks, we must discover new ways to entertain ourselves. And at the same time, there are teenagers who urge life to go on so that they can finally turn 18 or 21 and attend their dream concert of their favorite band. But by then, the band might have broken up. Opportunity lost. We sometimes find it inappropriate for a young person to enjoy, for example, classical music. It’s odd, something must be wrong. Everyone else in the same age group is listening to the latest pop songs. But here this person is, revelling in masterpieces created by people who lived long before his/her time. According to age, that doesn’t make sense.

We’ve often been told to ‘grow up’ or ‘act your own age’ and, yes, we might have also said those things. But what is ‘old’ or ‘young’? If a person is going to die at the age of 20, he has lived half his life by the age of 10. That’s the same as a person who’s having a midlife crises at 5o, and still has another 50 years to live. My point is, we don’t know whether we’re going to grow old or die young. If only it was possible to measure maturity, then life would be so much better. Live your life, experience things when you want to, and you’ll be fine.