50 is the new 40?

I don't know how anyone else's brain works, but I have some knowledge of the nature of my own. My brain likes to solve puzzles: crossword, jigsaw, sudoku. It always has and I've used that feature to my advantage time and time again, especially when I was in school. When I needed to write a paper, I would simply task my brain with developing the total topic and then wait for it to let me know the time was come to write. My friends and teachers didn't seem to understand that draft-writing and outlining were simply not useful tools for me in composition and really slowed me down.

The topic at dinner last night concerned age and appearances and included the assertion that "50 is the new '40' and 40 is the new '30'." Next thing I know, I've voiced a cohesive, multi-point argument. Unbeknowst to me and unbidden by me, this very topic was a puzzle my brain had taken on some time back and out of my mouth came the theories for the veracity of that assertion. Amazing.

First and foremost, I stated, we have MUCH better nutrition these days and, for many of us, that better nutrition began when we were in the womb. Better nutrition allows our bodies to better maintain every cell, every muscle, every organ, including the skin. With better cellular maintenance internally, and better skin care externally, we look younger longer. And for a nation so consumed by the appearance of the package, that translates to older folks looking a decade younger in the eyes of the beholder and the camera.

Second, we don't work as hard physically as our forebears did. We have developed tools to make our work easier and faster. No more do we have generations of skilled craftsman building a single mansion, or church, or monstrous public display such as a pyramid. With the tools now at our disposal, those edifices can be erected in a matter of months or years, not decades. Less strain on our bodies means less wear and tear on our physical appearance, allowing us to not show our age at the once-normal pace.

Third, we have more free time on our hands. Not only do the tools we have developed make our work easier, those same tools make our work faster, allowing us to work fewer hours. More free time should translate into better rested bodies, though that is not necessarily so. Still, more leisure time again means less wear and tear on our bodies, as many of us use that leisure time to exercise and tone the vessels that hold our souls. The benefit again is reflected in a longer stance with a younger appearance.

It's taken me longer to write this than for me to have uttered these thoughts last night at dinner. Amazing. I tell my students all the time that the subconscious brain is faster than any computer, that it is the source of our "gut feelings", of our instinct about a situation or a person. The brain is the keeper of every sensory bit of data collected by our bodies, as well as the library holding every word we've ever read. And yet, we depend too often on input from others to govern our own actions and beliefs. Not that it's a bad thing to look to others for advice and to take heed of their knowledge and experience. No, but we need to have more faith in our own database and continue to add to that store of knowledge, including one-on-one with other people. We need to accept responsibility for our own actions and decisions.

Me, too.