Forever Young

[poliphilo]

My dream self- when I'm aware of it having an age- is always considerably younger than I am now. This morning, for instance, I woke from a dream in which I was starting a new job as a gardener. I was part of a work gang that was lounging by an ornamental pool, waiting for instructions. The sun was shining and I was thinking "This is a nice enough billet" and trying to imagine what it would be like if it was raining. My age was imprecise, but everyone one else- including the woman who'd driven me to work and was either my wife or mother- was older. I'll guess I was about 18.

They say that when the spirits of the dead turn up on this side of the veil they almost always (no matter how old and decrepit they were when they died) present themselves as being healthy and in the prime of life.

Comments

[cmcmck]

Those fifteen wasted years always leave me feeling younger than I am and not just in dreams. I believe this is a fairly common experience.

It's probably not a bad thing that I also LOOK younger than I am. :o)

[poliphilo]

The age of the body has little to do with our experience of self. I feel my essential identity has been the same at every age. I was the same timeless being at 4 and 18 and 30 as I am today.

[cmcmck]

Whereas my essential identity needed a little help along the way! :)

[oakmouse]

"I feel my essential identity has been the same at every age. I was the same timeless being at 4 and 18 and 30 as I am today."

I have that feeling too.

[poliphilo]

I remember becoming conscious of myself at 4. I was exactly who I am today- and I was thinking how interesting it was to be having the experience of being a child of that age.

[oakmouse]

Yes. I was also four when I became self-aware, and I'm still who I was then. Some of my habitual behavior patterns have changed, but my essential self is still there.

Everything from before that is a dim blur, with occasional moments of clarity.

[oakmouse]

I usually see my Dad as somewhere in his 50s, ie his age when I was a teenager, but my grandparents as they were late in their lives. My great aunt and great uncle tend to look about the ages they were when I was a very little girl, Martha in her mid-60s and Charlie about 70. I haven't dreamed about my Mom in many years, but she used to show up in her 50s also.

[poliphilo]

That makes sense. If relatives you only knew as old people were to appear as their younger selves you might very well not recognise them.

[oakmouse]

True dat. Recently, when my sister and I were exchanging photographs of family photos in our respective collections, it took me a long time to realize who that vaguely familiar-looking woman with dark hair done up in one of those 1920s crimped wedges was. She was Martha, who I'd only ever seen with grey hair, barring one sepia-tone photo of her with her hair in a bun when she was about 16.