This is Luus Paternotte. For the full post click the link below.
I like this post because I feel it shows what is to me the strangest misconception about ageing: that somehow there is an age at which you suddenly change from a young person into an older person and you’re supposed to start acting like one. I feel like society as a whole – not just in relation to the process of ageing – shows more and more of a need to divide all aspects of life in to clear cut groups with clear cut distinctions in order to make sense of what is going on in the world. You need to be either A or B, black or white, young or old, or you will not be considered a part of society. When Luus says she does not feel like an older person, for me that means that she does not feel like what society tells her an older person is like; inactive, dependent, etc. I would love for the world to change its perception of older people, to acknowledge people’s ability to be somewhere in the grey area between the young, active, and contributing person and the old, weak, and useless person. We need to reject the idea of grey hair as decay from young to old all around, and learn to see the entire grey area of possibilities that is hiding behind wrinkles.
