Hansen: Finally old, but don't feel like it

How old is a 68-year-old guy supposed to be?

Maybe I’m supposed to be distinguished and stately, weighting my actions with gravitas. But maybe I should be defiant, saying age is just a number, making jokes about snow on the roof and fire in the furnace, and using current catch-phrases like a boss — like that. Or not.

I am officially retired, but I continue to write for two weekly newspapers. That keeps me feeling young.

On the other hand, I returned from a trip to California two weeks ago and found that work had temporality dried up.

The unexpected break was nicer than I would have thought it was even two years ago.

I appreciate what my cell phone and computer can do, but unlike many younger folks, I refuse to record my waking life on social media.

I ride a road bike, a racing bicycle, but not like a racer at all. That keeps me feeling young, too, except when I spend the rest of the day recovering from a harder-than-usual 20 mile pedaling jaunt.

As a musician who insists on playing in a band, I am encouraged that ex-Beatle Paul McCartney, 76, just put out an album of new music, and Willie Nelson is still on the road at age 85.

On the other hand, I still like old rock from the late 1960s and early 1970s, and be-bop jazz that started just after World War II.

Here’s what some other people say about age and old-ness.

Tina Gilbertson, a licensed counselor, writing in “Psychology Today:”

“Elderly people who reject negative stereotypes of themselves are happier and healthier than those who buy in to depressing narratives about being old. It’s not necessary to reject, or lie about, your age. Just don’t stop doing things you enjoy on the basis of that number alone.”

On the other hand, writes Deborah Drezon Carroll in the “Huffington Post,” 60 isn’t the new 40. It’s still 60, but you should be glad to be there. She explains:

“The part of your life where you’re striving to ‘be’ successful, or rich, or have the flawless body or be the perfect parent raising Ivy League kids is behind you. Now you can revel in ‘being’ who you are.”

My response: Yep.

But the average of responses in a 2015 Pew Research survey indicates I just turned old this year, at 68.

The same survey, however, says “Among respondents ages 65-74, just 21 percent say they feel old. Even among those who are 75 and older, just 35 percent say they feel old.”

If I don’t feel my age (except for my back and knees occasionally), do I have to act my age?

I say no, as long as I don’t try to fool anybody about it.

Steve Hansen writes about our life and times from his perspective of a retired Tucumcari journalist. Contact him at:

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