Word: What’s the saddest realization about growing older?

John Dean is a financial journalist, talk show host, and pianist

John Dean - I don’t know how “sad” it is, but an uncomfortable truth about getting older is the slow slide into irrelevance. The spotlight shines brightest on those between ages 20 and 40. In that age group, you know pretty well who the biggest actors and pop stars are, you’re up on most of the current trends, advertisers covet your attention, and most of your work colleagues probably speak the same “language” that you do.

I’m 62, and while I’m no Methuselah, I am one of the three oldest people in my company; and I’m THE oldest in my department by maybe 15 years. They have their own social circle and I have mine. Their interests just barely overlap my own, mainly sports team-related. I’ve been with this company for close to 30 years, which is longer than some of them have been alive. It’s an odd feeling.

The things that were important to me when I was their age don’t even register in many of their minds. They have nostalgia for the 1990s (!), which they call “an age of innocence, a simpler time.” Oy.

They don’t know who Johnny Carson was, or Ed Sullivan. They don’t remember a time without internet, cellphones, or air bags. Many have no first-hand knowledge of even 9/11. To them, Nixon, Reagan, and Clinton might as well be Coolidge, Harding, and Hoover. All of these people and events that still loom large in my mind are of virtually no consequence to them.

This isn’t a bad thing, it’s an inevitable thing. We’re born, we have our time in the sun, and then we head out to make room for the next set of people.

As children, our world was small, confined to our knowledge and experiences. Our world then expanded as we grew, and we came to know a lot of things about a lot of things. As we age, though, our world slowly begins to shrink again, and we begin to lose touch with most of what is currently considered “important.”

I’m fine with that. I don’t need to know any Taylor Swift songs, or which celebrities said what on TikTok, or what the newest app or video game can do. I got off the cultural bus with just enough in my suitcase to keep me entertained forever, and I’m happy I don’t have to know anything more.  Life is good.