I was taught in Mexico never to reveal my age, and I guess that stuck. Also, isn't it impolite to ask a lady's age? Anyone who pays attention to what I write can guess my age - I've already been called "old" by one member. When you read a newspaper, you don't know the age of the writer - it should be irrelevant or self-evident.
I went back to college when I was 35 to get another degree, and unfortunately, there was not graduate program in Interior Design at UT Austin at that time, and so I had to get another undergraduate degree. So I was in classes with 18-20 year olds to start with, and I never told them my age. Because they were naive, they tended to think I was 26-27 years old and consequently did not give me the respect that I deserved for my age. I was the same age as many of the instructors/professors, and I would talk with them on a peer to peer basis, which caused some of the students to comment about me, "What makes him think he knows so much?" The fact was that I did know more than some of the instructors, and some of them were happy to learn from me - especially my "History of Greek Art" professor, who was unable to read German. He had a theory about
the south Metopes of the Parthenon, which I told him after class had been published in
Die Zeit in Germany in 1936 (the library on campus had a good collection of old newspapers on microfiche). His response was, "Those Germans always think of everything first."
I found it somewhat easier to relate to the younger students if they did not know my age first, although if they asked, I would tell them. When
I was 39 (sorry for the missing head - I cut that off years ago), I used to wrestle with a guy who was 19 and built like a Colt model. I met him in swim class, and he actually approached me because he wanted to be friends with me. One day after swim class I happened to mention something about wrestling, and his eyes lit up, and so I asked him if he would like to wrestle on week-ends, as there was a gym with mats we could use. When I told him my age, he said, "You're an old geiser," but we still wrestled. He was the youngest in a large family and so was used to older guys, and so I guess it wasn't an issue for him.
I think age (once one is an adult) is about as relevant as race for deciding whether one is worth talking with or listening to, and I will listen to anyone of any age. I have tremendous respect for children and always pay attention to anything they have to say as well. I learned this partly from my brother who is 15 years younger, and when he was 2-3, I was the only one who would listen attentively to him.
. I dont think my age means anything to anyone else , i dont think it matters , although im probably a bit naive on some subjects and asspects of life.
](/images/smilies/bang.gif "Brick wall ](*,)")
This is pricesly the point I was trying to make -- nothing more and nothing less.
