By any other name

I have been thinking about human labels and wonder how much they contribute to who we are. From birth we are the only, oldest, middle or youngest child in our family. This label comes with its own set of statistics set up by humans who claim to know what they are talking about.

We are, generally speaking, born either male or female, which may not be true anymore. How we are supposed to act comes with a batch of statistics gathered from the learned. The colors we wear to the toys we play with are chosen for us, unless our parents break with tradition. There is also an ethnic label . God forbid if as a child your best friend happens to be of a different nationality, color or faith than you are. Even worse, what if you continue to be best friends and wind up marrying the person. What would the world think? Never fear you will be labeled.

As we go through school we acquire many new labels placed on us by teachers and peers. We can be labeled smart, slow, artistic, athletic, studious, class clown, nerd and yes even stupid just to name a few. Often these labels follow us for the rest of our lives until we look in our mirror and recognize who we really are.

The other day I found an article put out by the World Health Organization labeling age. After reading it I was angry with the details. 66 to 79 was considered middle age and 80 to 99 was labeled elderly or senior. My response was, "I might consider senior but there is no way in hell that I am elderly". This article prompted me to check into the question, how old is old?

I found a 2009 survey from the Pew Research Center that had some interesting information. Most adults over 50 said they feel at least 10 years younger than they are. 1/3 of  those 60-74 said they feel 10-19 years younger and 1/6 of people 75 and older felt 20 years younger than they were. People under 30 years of age generally thought old age starts at 60.

I found a quote regarding age from George Burns that I liked. "When I was young I was called a rugged individualist. When I was in my fifties I was considered eccentric. Here I am doing the same things I did then and I am labeled senile."

A fortune cookie had this advice: old is 20 years older than you are.

My personal goal is to die young as old as possible. I want to live to be a healthy 100- at least.