Old Is a Dirty Word
By ERIC THURMAN
Don’t call me “old” or, even worse,
“elderly.” I’m even a little testy about
being called a “senior citizen.” I don’t
care for “prime timer” either. Though
I realize I’m in my seventies, on the
inside I think of myself as a lot younger,
somewhere in my fifties. I look in the
mirror and see gray in my hair. And
admittedly my stamina isn’t what it
once was. But I still have a lot of drive.
In fact, I’ve never known more—I think
I have a lot of good miles left in me.
I get a chuckle from a witty meme
making its way around social media:
“I’ve decided I’m not old. I’m 25, plus
shipping and handling!”
Do you feel younger and feistier than
your birth certificate suggests? If so,
good for you. That attitude prevails
among people who thrive in their
third season. Lynn Peters Adler, JD, is
founder and director of the National
Centenarian Awareness Project that
42 • Solutions
honors people who live to age one
hundred and beyond. She says that
people over one hundred years of age
don’t feel or act their age either: “The
majority of active centenarians say
they do not feel their chronological
age; on average, they report feeling 20
years younger.”