This epiphany is about relativity. No, not Einstein’s General Relativity (which is essentially about gravity) or Special Relativity (which is about spacetime) – this is about Age Relativity.
Chronologically I’m (almost) 52 years old. In my brain, though, I fixated somewhere between 28 and 35. I’m not afraid or ashamed of age. The bodily creaks have increased at alarming rate over the last couple of years, but as I said, in my self-schema – the way I see and feel about myself – I’m early 30s.
The Age Relativity factor, though, comes into play when we observe others – especially others we view from some distance (as opposed to close acquaintances). I was watching baseball the other day and thinking that Raul Ibanez, outfielder for the Philadelphia Phillies, was “looking his age” in a particular at-bat. And then I found myself identifying with Ibanez as a fellow athlete whose body can no longer obey all of the orders the mind gives.
Raul Ibanez is 39. He’s not an old guy. He’s 13 years younger than me! But my self-schema sees things differently. When I look at him, I don’t perceive someone much younger than me – I perceive someone who is relatively a chronological equal.
Does this happen to everybody? Do we all age-fixate? Is there a broad range of where we fixate? And what drives it? And the biggest question is – as we grow older, does the fixation-point remain the same, or does it creep upwards with us?
I guess time will tell.
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~ by marksepiphany on July 20, 2011.
Posted in Commentary
Time and Relativity
This epiphany is about relativity. No, not Einstein’s General Relativity (which is essentially about gravity) or Special Relativity (which is about spacetime) – this is about Age Relativity.
Chronologically I’m (almost) 52 years old. In my brain, though, I fixated somewhere between 28 and 35. I’m not afraid or ashamed of age. The bodily creaks have increased at alarming rate over the last couple of years, but as I said, in my self-schema – the way I see and feel about myself – I’m early 30s.
Raul Ibanez is 39. He’s not an old guy. He’s 13 years younger than me! But my self-schema sees things differently. When I look at him, I don’t perceive someone much younger than me – I perceive someone who is relatively a chronological equal.
Does this happen to everybody? Do we all age-fixate? Is there a broad range of where we fixate? And what drives it? And the biggest question is – as we grow older, does the fixation-point remain the same, or does it creep upwards with us?
I guess time will tell.
Like this:
~ by marksepiphany on July 20, 2011.
Posted in Commentary