Who you calling ‘elderly’?

I don’t watch a ton of news, but I have been checking in on the story that has millions of people filled with dread about the future …

Tom Brady leaving the New England Patriots.

Seriously, I’m obviously talking about coronavirus (even in New England, Brady shares top billing at best) and I saw something the other day that left me disturbed.

I think it was the local newscast, and the anchor was talking over a graphic to show that COVID-19 wasn’t just targeting “the elderly.”

OK, that’s good to know, good to let younger people know they’re also at risk, but the age range in the graphic was 25 to 44.

I’m 47.

It has been a long time since I did logic proofs in Mrs. Mowers’ math class, but I was awesome at them, and I’m pretty sure there’s an equation in which if “not elderly” is 25 to 44, and I’m older than 44, that makes me “elderly.”

QED.

It’s bad enough that, even though I don’t particularly identify with Generation X, we’re the ground over which millennials and baby boomers toss rhetorical bombs at each other. (Jill Filipovic is herself a millennial, and has written a book on this topic, which I’ll probably read because I like her writing.)

And I’m not sure we’ll ever have a president from our generation. Barack Obama was the closest, but he was born in 1961, considered to be toward the end of the baby boom generation.

But now I’m “elderly” before I’m even 50? I once got a phone call from someone very upset that I once referred to a 78-year-old by that term. Or maybe he was 87 … point being it’s a lot older than 47.

Just because I play pickleball with people mostly 15 years older and up … I’m the young guy in the group! (So what if a lot of the older folks are better than me?)

Plus, millennials, boomers and Gen Xers need to come together, not just to help stop the spread of coronavirus, but to shake our heads at these dopes.

Generation Z … amirite?

(Did I use ‘amirite”right? I’m not always down with the lingo the kids are using these days.)

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4 thoughts on “Who you calling ‘elderly’?

  1. Pingback: The week gone by — March 22 – A Silly Place

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