For the casual reader, I must explain that I am 40 years old, and that’s really quite okay with me. Forty is a good age: I’ve been around long enough to have a bit of wisdom under my belt; I’m far enough into my career that I can provide a reasonable living for my family; yet I’m still young enough that my body isn’t completely falling apart, an issue I’m sure I’ll have to deal with in the next decade or two. In short, forty is nice. It’s a shame I can’t stay here for a while.
What’s weird is that, when I watch TV shows, the people on them—who are almost always quite a bit younger than forty—still seem to be older than I. Perhaps it’s because the shows we watch tend to involve authority figures, e.g. police officers, FBI agents, medical doctors, etc.; but ultimately, I think it’s just that I don’t even consider that the faces on the screen aren’t getting any older, even though I am.
Perfect example: look at the faces in the photo above. When the pilot was filmed, David Duchovny was 32 years old and Gillian Anderson was 24; yet even watching it now, it still takes conscious effort to realize they (especially Duchovny) are not somehow older than I am. (At the time, their characters were 31 and 29, respectively, but even those ages are considerably younger than mine.)
Anyone else experience this?
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