If we’re lucky, we all get older before we die. In our youth-obsessed culture, it’s not something many of us like to think about or perhaps even acknowledge. But denial only goes so far. Here are my observations about:

Six Surefire Signs You’re Not the Spring Chicken You Once Were

1. After watching you swim laps, a bystander tells you, “Wow, you’ve really got that slow motion thing down.”
2. The next day, you get on a crowded subway, and a young man jumps up and insists on giving you his seat.
3. Without your asking her, the lady at McDonald’s charges you for a senior coffee.
4. You wonder if Jane Fonda’s plastic surgeon ever does pro bono work.
5. The early bird dinner special at Big Boy no longer sounds obscene.
6. You realize the novel you’re reading, set in the time period of your youth, is billed as “historical fiction.”