Age is NOT Just a Number...

I have to give credit to "slogan-creators." They're evil geniuses. People will repeat a slogan or a saying with no thought to its inception or purpose. They just repeat it, over and over again.

I feel that way about the old saying that "Age is nothing but a number."

Here's my thought: If you can't apply the slogan to every situation, you probably should stop saying it. LOL

Age, to me, is more than a number. It's a great indicator of the amount of life experience, brain development and maturity that a person could have accumulated at a particular point in their time on Earth.

I know that people will say, "But Danielle, I'm or this person is VERY MATURE FOR (insert age here)." Yeah, uh huh...I hear ya.

Let's briefly talk about what MATURITY is. According to the dictionary, maturity indicates Full development...that's a little vague...so let's talk about what it is in a social function.

Maturity indicates Wisdom and Self-Control. Wisdom is the application of knowledge from past experiences, in a situation, as to  not repeat the same behavior or thought processes that caused one to FAIL in the past. Self-control, many times is based on the full development of one's frontal lobe, right?? (hey, you're welcome to look it up.) So, very little can be done to speed up BRAIN DEVELOPMENT. C'mon...think about it.


Now, seriously...the average person in the West, especially the United States,  has NOT experienced enough life in their years to make them mature beyond their years. The average person hasn't dealt with loss, hardship or long term responsibility over and above any other person their age. So what catalyst has been introduced in their life to cause them to HAVE to gain wisdom or speed up the development of their frontal lobe, causing them to have such a great level of Self-Control?? <----Exactly. Nothing.

I think people confuse being smart and/or intelligent with being mature. (shrugs) There is a big difference between being really smart and really mature.

Now, let's talk about the OTHER thing I brought up at the beginning of this---the whole "if you can't apply a slogan to all situations..." thing...

You CANNOT apply the "Age is nothing but a number" to all situations. Before I delve into the gross ones, let me just mention some reasonable and logical ones...

When does Age begin to NOT matter? Is there a point when someone isn't too young to get in on this deal? Because my 10 year old would like to sign a contract...

Is there Gap-Insurance on the Age thing? Ya know...as long as the years between two people trying to do something together isn't TOO BIG, can they do what they want? Because this 16 year old boy would love to go to Jamaica with his 49 year old girlfriend.

Naw, never mind, there's NO need to go into the really gross examples. You get the point.

Here's what I'm saying: Age does matter. It is a great way to get an initial gauge on where someone is in their development and in their life experience.

One's age tells you what world events have shaped their life and view of the world, what social and entertainment happenings are relevant to them and what type of responsibility they are generally able to handle. That's a lot.

I just wish that more people would listen to what they're saying before repeating some slogan and painting a situation with such a broad brush...Really that's all I want...