Today is my “birthday” and people have invariably been asking me the question, “How old are you?” – a simple question with a potentially complex answer. Each time I had to decide, “How do I want to answer this?” Mostly, I chose to say the obvious. Based on the year I was born and the year of my new birthday, I subtract the difference and tell them that number is my age. This method is obviously not unique to me because everyone uses the same method to determine their age.
But in truth, I could answer that question entirely differently if I chose to. Because the question is “How old are you?” and in order to answer that question I would have to know what is meant by “you”. We have all heard expressions like “Grow up” or “Act your age” or “That child has an old spirit” and somehow we seem to know what is meant by these expressions.
We have seen relatively “young people” who are stubborn, fatigued, and weak and “older people” who are active, vibrant, and inquisitive. All of these dynamics point to a more complex truth about age. Age can be a far deeper question than we previously understood.
Time
“Chronological age” is what is generally meant when one is asked his or her age. A year is simply how
long it takes the earth to travel one time around the sun. So when someone asks your age, they are in actuality asking “How many times have you been around the sun?” This is suppose to tell the person something about you because presumably we all live under the same conditions and have the same body design such given the same number of years we should all be in roughly the same condition. However, this is not always the case. It is a gross generalization that does not always hold true.
As I said, time is what is being measured when one is asked their age. One could very well be asked, “How long have you been on the earth?” But what makes the question of age relevant is that we associate certain conditions with certain ages. If we did not, then the answer to the question would tell us nothing, except our number of times around the sun. It is true that we all share an expected common life cycle and at different phases in this life cycle we expect different things. This is what makes age relevant to us. We expect vitality, energy, optimism, fast learning, and risk taking to accompany youth and a gradual reduction of energy, vitality, and physical functioning as we age, and consequently more conservatism and caution. In all honesty, the thing that is actually being determined when one is asked his or her age is “how much have you decayed?” or more politely stated, “Where are you in the life cycle?”
But what happens when the life cycle is not equal for all people? What would the answer reveal then? What if we where to distinguish our biological age from our chronological age? What if we looked at the condition of our body and its vitality and determined where it was in the life cycle and scored it with an numeric value distinct and separate from our chronological age? We would then have two ages. One age would tell us our body’s condition and vitality while the other would tell us how long we have been on the earth. Biological condition is different for each person based on genetics, nutrition, health maintenance, activity levels, exposure to stressors and toxins, and even the quality of our relationships and human interactions. It is not fixed. This explains why some who should look older and be weaker based on age, are not and others who should not look older and weaker based on their younger age, are. The latest research on aging and health is revealing that biological age is different from chronological age. So if we had both ages and viewed them as two distinct values, then together they would inform us on how well we had lived the life we were given.
For example, let’s say someone had a bio age of 90 out of 100, with a 100 being perfect sound health, strength, quick healing and recovery and 0 being completed dead. Lets also say the person had a chronological age of 60 years old to accompany the biological score of 90, then we would likely be quite impressed with how well they had maintained themselves for that period of time. On the contrary if their chronological age was 20 and their biological score was 65, then we might then view the person as a reckless caretaker of their precious life.
So we can conclude that we all have two ages. One age or score for our bodily health and condition and the other number represents our chronological age. The biological score tells us how vibrant and healthy we are and how far we are from dying due to health reasons while our chronological age reveals how long we have been on the earth. When considered together it tells us much more and leads us to understanding other aspects of ourselves.
Mental age? What is the strength and condition of your mind? Have disorders and decay set in? Has your rate of learning slowed greatly since you were a child? Since we are more than simply a body, one could also determine a score for our mental health and condition. By using the same measure of 100 being perfect mental health, strength, learning, and vitality and 0 being complete mental death we could build out a scale where lower scores reflect very little learning, mental disorders, and weakness while higher scores reflect mental strength, clarity, and rapid or sustained learning. This could be considered a third age, which when considered in conjunction with the other two would reveal even more about us. A mental score of 75 with a chronological age of 60 along with a biological score of 80 would be quite impressive. Especially if contrasted with someone who had a mental score of 50, a biological score of 35 and a chronological age of 25. We could really know much more if we understood what we actually meant by asking how old are YOU?
Then there is the measure of wisdom. One could call this your emotional or spiritual age, depending upon how you view it. We always assume wisdom comes with age. This is true to an extent because wisdom often accompanies experience and experience usually accompanies age. But again everyone is not the same. Remember the expression “an old soul” in reference to a child? Young people can be wise and insightful and long life does not always reflect a broad range of experience or learning. If we were so inclined, we could create a relative scale to score the wisdom or spiritual age of a person.
We could create a scale where the most self centered, selfish, destructive, and detrimental behaviors, actions, interactions, and relationships would reveal a rather low spiritual age, while the more harmonious mutually beneficial actions, interactions, relationships, and behaviors would reveal a higher spiritual age.
Thus we would know how old someone is spiritually through the wisdom on display throughout their life. Peace, harmony, selflessness, contentment, optimism, generosity, service and good relationships would reveal a high spiritual age and discord, conflict, bad relationships, unhappiness, selfishness, and aggression would reflect a low spiritual age.
These four ages or scores; chronological, biological, mental, and spiritual are in my view what reveal the condition of a human being for each of us is far more than just a lump of decaying matter. We
are multi dimensional; Mind, Body, and Spirit.
So this day, September 8, 2011 I offer to the world a birthday gift, a new reality in defining our age, 4 Ages. Ask yourself and determine:
What is your chronological age?
What is your biological score?
What is your mental score?
What is your spiritual age?
And most importantly, realize that you can change all of them, for the better or for the worse, with the exception of your chronological age. But no worries, take comfort in knowing this, that of your four ages, your chronological is the least important. J
Oh and how old am I. I am guessing….
Bioligical…. Maybe 85 out of 100.
Mental …. About 90 out of 100
Spiritual….. at least 3 millennia (Lol)
Chronological …. 43, but that’s a secret
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