“Act your age.”

How many of us heard this as we were growing up?  I, for one, was never sure what was expected of me when those three words came my way.  I knew that they meant I was doing something unacceptable but apart from that, I never really understood what I should be doing instead.  Where was it written that we needed to “act our age” and what did that mean anyway?

I pictured an ancient tome of encyclopedic scope, listing all the objectionable behaviors to avoid, hidden away on a dusty shelf somewhere. I imagined that it contained information on what was expected and what was prohibited for each year of a child’s life.  I wondered when it was written and by whom, and if there was a magical age one must reach before its contents were finally revealed.  I was pretty sure that whatever that magical age was, it was probably too late for me.  It had already done its damage. Without ever having laid eyes on it, that book had left a dark smudge upon my self-concept. Opening it up and peering within didn’t seem like such a good idea.  “Acting my age” had eluded me for so long that I didn’t really want to mess with it.

Once you become a senior citizen, “acting one’s age” takes on a new, softer meaning.  This was brought home to me in the Sunday Styles section of the “New York Times” this weekend where Dominique Browning’s article entitled, “I’m Too Old for This” sat front and center on page two, begging me to read it. (http://www.nytimes.com/2015/08/09/fashion/im-too-old-for-this.html?_r=0)

What did she feel she was too old to do? I wondered.  Was this going to be a long list of don’ts, a geriatric version of “act your age”?  Was she going to extoll the virtues of giving up youthful endeavors and giving in to self-censorship? Thankfully, she did none of that. Instead she quickly established that advancing age brings with it a certain kind of freedom–the ability to acknowledge and free oneself from troubling situations, negative people, and toxic mindsets by repeating the simple mantra, “I’m too old for this,” then letting those things go. I breathed a sigh of relief and understood immediately.  I have felt the freedom she speaks about.

“I’m too old for this.” My mind cannot let these words go.  Indulgent thoughts urge me to play along with them.  I will see where they take me.

I’m not done with being “too old for this.”