You are as old as you feel ...
July 31, 2007 at 9:57 AM
by Ashleigh
Today I was up at the ungodly hour of 7 am, (yes, only 15 minutes before we usually wake up, but it felt ungodly!) so I could go and meet Gerrit for my acupuncture session. It's school holidays so early in the morning is really the best time for me to go, unless I want kids jumping up and down and distracting him. You don't want a man with needles to be distracted!
I got to Gerrit's at 7.30 for my appointment. He was, as usual, obscenely cheerful, just having come back from two weeks in the South of France.
So while he's needling my ears he tells me about the Dutch writer, Harry Mulischwho just turned 80.
Gerrit watched an interview with him where he said that everyone has a fixed age which they stay at, mentally and psychologically, through their lives. Gerrit says he feels like he is 21. Harry Mulisch apparently feels like he is 17.
He asked me how old I feel inside.
I couldn't answer.
After a long silence I eventually said I thought I hadn't got there yet.
I think my inner me might be a lot older than my outer me.
How old do you feel inside?
Comments
Hrm good question....
Somewhere between 21 and 30.
Probably 26.
I always feel grown up and responsible but still silly and fun loving...
Your question leapt out at me. Have to answer questions like that. Early to mid-20s. I wonder if that's not a bad thing though. Should my sense of myself be lagging by around a decade?
(PS Are you running a homometer on this site? It's just that it asked me to type 'pink'.)
Jeremy: I have to type pink too! So unless it's some nefarious plot by hubby to unmask us all ... I think you are mid-20s.
Barbara: you can join me in the 40-somethings. I wanted to say Brad was about 12 too, but then I suppressed it. Now he can keep Niek company ;)
Jane: I can't remember being 26, but I remember you being 26 and you are far more fun-loving now than you were then!
Ash: haha thanks... but I think you mean 20-22...
By 26 I was taking my 12 month old to a synergy rave for new year! ;)
and by 28 it was my 6-weeker (and 2 year old) at the Vortex new year event... I am clearly growing down not up ;)
It like having kids gave me my youth. I was old before I had them...
Oh I'm still 23. No doubt about it. Even though I was confused and unhappy and mixed-up then, though I'm not now. But my soul is definitely 23.
I feel much younger than I really am, and it's been magnified lately since my husband, who's 8 years older, is complaining about feeling old. I've let my hair grow long, and that gives me a young frame of mind.
I've been thinking about this lately, so it's funny you've posted about it. Niek is about 12. Oddly, I think of my parents and myself at all about the same age - somewhere around 40 I guess. I wonder when I reach 40 if that will somehow feel 'right'.
July 31, 2007 12:46 PM