I find these things more and more these days. Old actors in movies are not so old anymore. They are younger than me, in many cases, or just about my age. I am on the back side of everything and this reality just makes it more clear to me.
But I don't feel old. Of course, I never felt young either. When I was a Boy Scout, we had Indian dance routines and I never felt like I was a skinny little kid when I did the dances, but looking at pictures makes me realize how young I really was. And skinny.
The world goes on around me. I am reaching the age at which my father retired. When I go into restaurants, they ask if I want the senior discount. I can play senior tennis. Time passes and the world goes on around me.
But it does not feel that way to me. I remember being a young lawyer and now I am an old lawyer, but it took awhile for me to realize how people treated me differently. I was a young preacher and now I am an old preacher. I was a young father, amazed at how old some of the parents were in my child's open house at school, but now I am an old father amazed at how young some of the parents are.
Yet, I am still the same. Now I understand people saying they don't feel old. I feel the same as I did when I was a young preacher, the same as I did when I was a young lawyer, the same as I did on that Indian dance team all those years ago.
The world goes on around me. Everyone ages and everyone changes. New inventions come and go. New "stars" burn through the entertainment world and new dishes are available for my microwave. But I remain me.
That is the way of things. Everyday, I am me. I change, but I remain me. I remember that boy playing high school tennis and I still feel the same when I play, although I do not play the same.
I am old but not old. I have changed but remain the same. The whole world sees me as different, but I see me as me. And, I suspect, everyone else does the same thing.
So, do not be surprised if the old man next to you at the McDonald's starts tapping his feet to the music. Do not be surprised if an old man smiles as he picks up a bag of circus peanuts at the grocery store. In his heart, he is still a boy. In his heart, he is still a young man. In his heart, he is always himself, always learning, always growing, always staying the same.
It is a mystery. But a pleasant mystery.