on aging

teaching my students the different stages of life, i asked them what they thought middle-aged might be. with a little coaxing, the began to grasp the idea that this is somewhere around the halfway point. but when asked to show where this fell on a timeline i'd drawn on the blackboard, they put a mark around 30. first, i thought this was a misunderstanding, or possibly the concepts students often have of their teachers being ancient. did you used to go to work by dinosaur, etc. except, these were not the young kids that i teach, but adults who learn english at night after work. then i realized, this is the right answer in vietnam. the life expectancy is considerably shorter here. perhaps this explains the complete disregard of safety. a dad will pilot his motor-scooter with just his right hand which is needed to accelerate, under his left arm, just like you might carry a bag of groceries by pressing it against your body, is his infant child. hope the cellphone doesnt ring.

blessed with smooth skin, women who rarely grow taller than the average 14 year old in america look like children dressed in barbie® goes to work attire. my boss wears braces, shuffles around like little a youngster wearing fuzzy slippers. though she doesnt look a day over 15, she could be twice that, which is to say, middle aged.

i remember reading an article about gillette, the shaver conglomerate setting their sites on china. while the average asian man shaves far less frequently than his western peers who are clearly not as far along in the evolution process, theres a billion of em. who am i to doubt the wisdom of a huge multi-national company, but i cannot see these hairless dudes ever hitting the shaving aisle, if such a section of the drug store even exists. more likely, it would seem like these would fall under the kind specialty items you might special order if you have a freak condition, like shoes for people with one leg inches shorter than the next, gloves for those born with webbed extremities, or a colostomy bag for those who can no longer use the original exit provided.

when you do spot old people, they are ancient. old ladies wear the same pajama suits which are essentially house coats, and bamboo hats like youve seen in the movies. the perfect uniform for toiling under the intense heat, squatting to do washing and baby care duties that are still exclusively ladies work. most likely, this older generation has not felt the slow creep of womens liberation. besides the obvious giveaways such as white hair, crazily wrinkled skin, and a mouth full of gums with maybe just a single rotten tooth remaining. they tend to sport the hairstyle from their day. keeping it up in a bun is apparently very old school.