Thursday, March 29, 2007

Forever 34?

"What's your permanent age?" asks Scott Adams, the creator of Dilbert. Unlike most celebrities, Adams actually writes his own blog and manages to be both entertaining and thought-provoking at the same time with virtualy unsurpassed regularity. That Adams posed this question now is convenient because I've been doing some serious reflecting of my own on this very subject the last few days.

Ten years ago, one of the people I met online (on an investment bulletin board, mind you - minds out of the gutter please - the priest thread is below) sent me some information by mail and enclosed a picture of herself when she was aged 25, noting "This is how I always think of myself." (She was then about 40, I think.) At the time, I was somewhat mystified by the enclosure and the notation.

As time passed, I began to appreciate what she meant, that we all have an image of ourselves in our mind's eye. While young, it is constantly changing, but at some point it freezes, perhaps forever, perhaps not. And I realize that when bring my own image to mind, I'm almost always 34. Not sure why it is 34, because I had one Hell-of-a-lot of fun at 33, and 35-37 were among the happiest, most exciting and fulfilling years of my life. Other than the image in my mind, 34 was a pretty unremarkable age.

Anyway, despite daily evidence to the contrary (whenever I look in the mirror), 34 appears to be my permanent age. What's yours?

2 comments:

amba said...

I had a theory back then that 34 was "the peak of life" -- the age when your body and mind are at the highest level together. Your body has already started down, but not very far; your mind is still on the way up. This is when they cross at the highest point.

Yet, the age I am, and always will be, and wish I always could be, is about 40. Early 40s. The best.

12 wasn't bad either.

Randy said...

That makes sense to me (so it must be wrong ;-). I don't EVER want to revisit 12, but 11 was OK. Early 40's were fine - they will look better in a few years, I'm sure.

P.S. You are about to have an Alta-lanche. (I just noticed that Ann linked to your post.)