Just Curious

[sara farr]

Hey AIC,

Science says, improv helps you maintain your vitality & live a longer, happier life. But how old are you REALLY?

Just curious.

[Rev. Jordan T. Maxwell]

30...but just barely.

[Adan]

30...but just barely.

Yeah, I really don't think 30 needs to be grouped up with all the other 30s.

[mpbrockman]

30...but just barely.

Yeah, I really don't think 30 needs to be grouped up with all the other 30s.

Hmmm...

I think I agree with you. People 25 & under are still mostly teens in my experience (I certainly was). Speaking in huge generalizations, I might have broken down the younger age groups farther. 25 and 30 are very different, 30 to 35 is likewise still a period of relatively rapid change. Somewhere in their late 30s people finally begin to settle into themselves.

At least that's been my observation, FWIW.

[Rev. Jordan T. Maxwell]

30...but just barely.

Yeah, I really don't think 30 needs to be grouped up with all the other 30s.

Hmmm...

I think I agree with you. People 25 & under are still mostly teens in my experience (I certainly was). Speaking in huge generalizations, I might have broken down the younger age groups farther. 25 and 30 are very different, 30 to 35 is likewise still a period of relatively rapid change. Somewhere in their late 30s people finally begin to settle into themselves.

At least that's been my observation, FWIW.

oh good! i'm NOT a grown up yet!

[Meghan W]

30...but just barely.

Yeah, I really don't think 30 needs to be grouped up with all the other 30s.

Hmmm...

I think I agree with you. People 25 & under are still mostly teens in my experience (I certainly was). Speaking in huge generalizations, I might have broken down the younger age groups farther. 25 and 30 are very different, 30 to 35 is likewise still a period of relatively rapid change. Somewhere in their late 30s people finally begin to settle into themselves.

At least that's been my observation, FWIW.

Hell yes, I'm still a teenager!

[mpbrockman]

You know, Jordan and Meghan; my comment could be construed in a manner less, rather than more, complimentary to you kidlets. Not that there's anything wrong with being young, but I personally wouldn't be a teenager again for anything.

I'd like the 18 year old knees back, tho'.

Hmmm... maybe I'd like another run at my mid-30's, too. I screwed the pooch a few times in there.

Eh, screw it - self-knowledge beats springy knees.

[mpbrockman]

Holy sh*t - passed 2000 posts about 41 back and didn't even realize it...

Must be getting old

[Meghan W]

You know, Jordan and Meghan; my comment could be construed in a manner less, rather than more, complimentary to you kidlets. Not that there's anything wrong with being young, but I personally wouldn't be a teenager again for anything.

I'd like the 18 year old knees back, tho'.

Hmmm... maybe I'd like another run at my mid-30's, too. I screwed the pooch a few times in there.

Eh, screw it - self-knowledge beats springy knees.

Be as un-complimentary as you like, sir, my recent stint in reality has left me pining for the good ol' days of incredibly limited responsibility.

[Rev. Jordan T. Maxwell]

amen to that. if this is growing up, i'd like to grow back down a bit please...

[mpbrockman]

You know, Jordan and Meghan; my comment could be construed in a manner less, rather than more, complimentary to you kidlets. Not that there's anything wrong with being young, but I personally wouldn't be a teenager again for anything.

I'd like the 18 year old knees back, tho'.

Hmmm... maybe I'd like another run at my mid-30's, too. I screwed the pooch a few times in there.

Eh, screw it - self-knowledge beats springy knees.

Be as un-complimentary as you like, sir, my recent stint in reality has left me pining for the good ol' days of incredibly limited responsibility.

I understand that, but it wasn't meant as a slam.

I just seems to me that, given the doubling of lifespans over the last 150 years, our childhoods and adolescence has increased commensurately. Hell, by the numbers, I'm expected to have 15-20 years more to play with than my parents (and one of them is already gone - at age 63 - a statistical anomaly). It seems than rather than extending the period of one's "adult" years (if you want to call them that), we seem to have gotten the increase more at the ends of the spectrum in the form of extended childhoods and extended senescence.

Maybe the saws about "30 being the new 20" or "40 being the new 30" aren't just things baby boomers said to each other to feel better about hitting middle age. There seems to be data to back this up.

I think this may also explain why many of our parents felt so frustrated with what they perceived as our "laziness" or "unwillingness to grow up". That may confined to my gen., who's parents were born in the 1940s or so. Expectations were a lot different then. Their parents had been around for two World Wars and the Great Depression, so their children (our parents) weren't afforded much in the way of "growing up" time. They expected the same of us (GenXers) and rarely got it, much to their dismay. Perhaps it's different for, say, the children of people born in the 50s who were young enough to embrace the youth culture of the 60s.

How the f*ck did this turn into a mini-essay? I could actually go on about this topic, but I'll shut up now. I'd love to hear from some others regarding their ideas re inter-generational expectations and weirdness as well as rebuttals (if someone has some) regarding my observation that the years of increased lifespan are seemingly tacked on at the beginning and end of our runs.

[KathyRose]

... the years of increased lifespan are seemingly tacked on at the beginning and end of our runs.

I don't think it can (or should) be generalized in that way.

My mother was born in 1914 on a tenant farm in Ohio, and lived a very healthy and active life to the age of 95, without any apparent disease or disability. The biggest factor, I think, was her attitude (and her avoidance of doctors and hospitals).

You might think, "she was just lucky, not to have the health problems that people her age usually have." But I would ask in return, how many of those "typical health problems" are caused by poor nutritional choices and insufficient exercise?

My point is this... I believe that (barring mental disability) people "act the age" that they choose to act, throughout the stages of their lives. You gave some good examples of kids who "refuse to grow up." My mother chose not to "act old" until she decided that it was time to depart. And then she did, just as she wanted to.

Certainly, the choice (of "how old to act") is influenced by culture, family, peers, other environmental factors and (to some extent) the genetic lottery. The sad thing is that so many people are not aware that they even have a choice. They just do what is expected of them and follow the examples that have been set, either in their personal life or by corporate marketing and the entertainment industry.

But everyone has a choice. And I've had a terrific example to follow for the rest of my years, thanks to my mom. I'm the 60-year-old on Sara's bar chart.

[Rev. Jordan T. Maxwell]

sweet...24 it is then!

[mpbrockman]

... the years of increased lifespan are seemingly tacked on at the beginning and end of our runs.

I don't think it can (or should) be generalized in that way.

My point is this... I believe that (barring mental disability) people "act the age" that they choose to act, throughout the stages of their lives. You gave some good examples of kids who "refuse to grow up." My mother chose not to "act old" until she decided that it was time to depart. And then she did, just as she wanted to.

Certainly, the choice (of "how old to act") is influenced by culture, family, peers, other environmental factors and (to some extent) the genetic lottery. The sad thing is that so many people are not aware that they even have a choice. They just do what is expected of them and follow the examples that have been set, either in their personal life or by corporate marketing and the entertainment industry.

I think you've made a parallel point, not a counter-argument. I concede generalizing (and admitted doing such a couple of posts up), but outside of the readily available information concerning increased lifespans - my posts have been based on observation, reading and general sociological hypotheses derived therefrom.

How do you feel that having a choice in the age we act (a specific individual choice) is contradictory to what I've written (in very general terms) above?

[hujhax]

A lenghty NYTimes article that might be relevant to this discussion:
"Why are so many people in their 20s taking so long to grow up?"



--
peter rogers @ work | http://hujhax.livejournal.com

The fact that we live at the bottom of a deep gravity well, on the surface of a gas covered planet going around a nuclear fireball 90 million miles away and think this to be normal is obviously some indication of how skewed our perspective tends to be.
      -- Douglas Adams