What do you think is the ideal age? Why?
Responses:
- This, like all of them is a complicated question. It could mean age of history - the stone age, the modern age - but I think that would be more correctly phrased the ideal era. So I am going to interpret this to mean the age in years of an individual. And that varies from person to person. Some are highly suited to being children and then it's a downhill slope from there. They are physically appealing, love being cared for, do not crave independence. Others at the same age do nothing but scream against the restrictions of childhood and race out of it at breakneck speed. A few, not many, are suited to old age. They have wonderful health, don't complain, they share their experience lightly, they trust the young to handle the world and are not attached to the past. Some sad cases are at their ideal age in high school; the captain of the football team, the homecoming queen who never again so strong, so beautiful, so dynamic. Some extraordinary souls, the luckiest people, can find the qualities in themselves that best fit the age they are and they adapt to fit the demands and the opportunities of every stage of life. It is the hardest thing to do because as soon as you figure out the requirements of any age, you are out of that one and on to the next. So the ideal age is the one you are if you've figured out how to be that age. Though my son has a nice idea - he says the ideal age is one year older than the one you are.
- For looks, 29. Everyone looks their best at age 29. Otherwise, 65. I have been counting the days to 65 since I can remember. You're ethically, legally, morally and physically done done done with work. But you have the benefit of everything that comes from having worked. And you're still vital enough (if you've played your cards right) to have some fun. I will be so disappointed if it doesn't turn out to be what I've been waiting for. I guess I'm looking forward to a time in life when I really don't have to give a shit, and I won't be decrepit or bitter.
- Having been around for only 50 1/2 years, I suppose saying '60' might be ludicrous, eh? Sorting through the years, however, allow me to think aloud (kind of). 18 was pretty good - started fresh at college, worried less about parental bullshit. But in general, I think most at that age are still pretty confused. Thirty was strange - knew that it was time to 'get real', but for me personally, I was still confused about my direction, and I think I was still trying to feel comfortable with societal expectations and not as in touch with personal ones. 37-40 was a grounding time - more comfy in my own skin, less co-dependent, more capable of self-honesty and of executing my own decisions, by myself, for myself, and genuinely enjoying the path I was on. After that, I'm afraid that too much resignation to things begins to creep in. Not sure I like that. The truth is, I don't think one can objectively attach a # to the 'ideal age'. It's obviously a subjective choice for each individual, contingent upon their own life experience and / or how they project the future. That being said, I think the ideal age is whenever one has sorted out the confusions of youth, faces themselves honestly and behaves as such, and embarks comfortably on whatever paths they choose, to obtain whatever goals they aspire to, and to recognize that happiness & success are entirely relative at any given moment. (Then again, perhaps the ideal age is 1 or 2. All your physical needs are pretty much met - and they're very basic. Everyone smiles at you and thinks you're cute pretty much all of the time. You can cry, whine and create all kinds of mishaps and still get away with it. You don't have to worry about addictions of any kind. Your mind is open to everything, and absorbs everything easily, except for the complicated stuff -- which really now, how lovely is that?! Most of all, it takes very little to make you delightedly happy!)
- 33
Song:
The Sporting Life, by The Decemberists
Lyrics:
I fell on the playing field
The work of an errant heel
The din of the crowd and the loud commotion
Went deafening silence and stopped emotion
The season was almost done
We managed it 12 to 1
So far I had known no humiliation
In front of my friends and close relations
There's my father looking on
And there's my girlfriend arm in arm
With the captain of the other team
And all of this is clear to me
They condescend and fix on me a frown
How they love the sporting life
And father had had such hopes
For a son who would take the ropes
And fulfill all his old athletic aspirations
But apparently now there's some complications
But while I am lying here
Trying to fight the tears
I'll prove to the crowd that I come out stronger
Though I think I might lie here a little longer
There's my coach he's looking down
The disappointment in his knitted brow
I should've known
He thinks again
I never should have put him in
He turns and loads the lemonade away
And breathes in deep
The sporting life
The sporting life
The sporting life
How he loves...
There's my father looking on
And there's my girlfriend arm in arm
With the captain of the other team
And all of this is clear to me
They condescend and fix on me a frown
How they love the sporting life
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