What does age really mean? According to the beloved dictionary.com :
age noun, verb,aged, ag·ing or age·ing.
–noun
1.
the length of time during which a being or thing has existed; length of life or existence to the time spoken of or referred to: trees of unknown age; His age is 20 years.
2.
a period of human life, measured by years from birth, usually marked by a certain stage or degree of mental or physical development and involving legal responsibility and capacity: the age of discretion; the age of consent; The state raised the drinking age from 18 to 21 years.
America seems to have some notably convoluted opinions on the capabilities of certain ages: 16-year-olds can drive a car, but they cannot vote. 18-year-olds can vote, but they can’t buy beer. In a nutshell, Beer>Driving and Voting. Okay…what?
Isn’t intellectual capability sometimes transcendent of age? Absolutely. Take for instance a 14-year-old New Yorker who’s navigated the subway and city streets since he was 11. He spends every day surrounded by millions of people, and hasn’t batted an eye at the demented behavior of strangers since he was 5. No, he mostly likely doesn’t really understand the ins-and-outs of investment banking or the laws of calculus, and he’s most likely never really been in love or has even had a defining life experience. But, this 14-year-old child can successfully navigate himself to wherever he wishes to go and is not overwhelmed when dealing with people he doesn’t know. He has accomplished things that most 30-year-olds still can’t do.
Maybe we are all outcomes of our environment, and our capabilities have nothing to do with age at all. At no point do we wake up on a birthday and discover we are now that magical number, that we have crossed into Brigadoon from a world of greasy hair and skateboards and grades and sneakers and secrets, and into one of taxes and divorces, stale coffee and office gossip.
The mind and the experience of life cannot be valued with a number. A 100-year-old tree in a forrest somewhere might be revered and safeguarded by a benevolent national park, but it cannot be said that a diminutive pansy growing out of a crack in the sidewalk is not equally majestic.
