Young and Old

I find it fascinating that at any point in one’s life, anyone younger is young and anyone older is old, regardless of her age. That is to say, at twenty-one I thought someone at fifty as very old, but now, approaching eighty, I think of a fifty-year old friend very young. An old person from my present vantage point is only those octogenarians and nonagenarians or older. Graduate students who looked so mature when I was an undergraduate impress me today a tender youth. I am old but also young, relatively. I remember Socrates saying in Plato’s Phaedo how Simmias, who is taller than Socrates but shorter than Phaedo, can be said to be both tall and short at the same time. This is how it is with one’s station in life. Whenever I was grumpy as a child, complaining of our misfortunes, Mother used to say “If you look up there is more above, and if you look down there is more below (Ue ni wa Ue, Shita ni wa Shita).” Thanks to her, even though I could not say that I had not experienced misfortunes, I have never really suffered discontent -- about my modest accomplishments and the median status in life.